
By 



i/v. p. ^ STE 



.L J i '^ W 



/aiPJCM SPORTS. 

Edited 'W'€aspar WIntney 



>EIBRAEY 



^^C( 




Class _Gl\/_111_ 

Book^ ^. 8i 

Copyi1gM]J° 



COPyRIGHT DEPOSnV 



THE AMERICAN SPORTSMAN'S LIBRARY 

EDITED BY 
CASPAR WHITNEY 



AMERICAN YACHTING 



jrt^^^ 



r 




AMERICAN YACHTING 



BY 



W. p. STEPHENS 



M 




THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 

LONDON : MACMILLAN & CO., Ltd. 
1904 



» • 



All rights reserved 






LIBRARY nf CONGRESS 
Two Copies Received 

MAY 3 1904 

Conyriffht Entry 

CLASSO «- XXc. No. 

5 (o ^ H- 
COPY B 



Copyright, 1904, 
By the MACMILLAN COMPANY. 



Set up, electrotyped, and published April, 1904. 



Norivood Press 

y. S. Cusbing & Co. — BertLHck Sf Smith Co. 

Norwood^ Mass.f U.S.A. 



INTRODUCTION 

In spite of the utilitarian tendencies of the 
present age, it is fortunately no longer necessary 
to argue in behalf of sport; even the busiest of 
busy Americans have at last learned the neces- 
sity for a certain amount of relaxation and rec- 
reation, and that the best way to these lies in 
the pursuit of some form of outdoor sport. 
While each has its stanch adherents, who pro- 
claim its superiority to all others, the sport of 
yachting can perhaps show as much to its credit 
as any. 

As a means to perfect physical development, 
one great point in all sports, it has the advantage 
of being followed outdoors in the bracing atmos- 
phere of the sea ; and while it involves severe 
physical labor and at times actual hardships, it 
fits its devotees to withstand and enjoy both. 

In the matter of competition, the salt and 
savor of all sport, yachting opens a wide and 
varied field. In cruising there is a constant strife 



VI Introduction 

with the elements, and in racing there is the 
contest of brain and hand against those of equal 
adversaries. As a mere matter of healthy and 
exciting exercise, an hour at the tiller of a yacht 
in a thrash to windward will compare favorably 
with any other form of active sport. 

In material and physical points yachting has 
much to commend it to the leading place in the 
list of sports; but, unlike many others, it goes 
much further, and can fairly claim a place among 
the arts and sciences as a purely intellectual pur- 
suit. The science of yacht designing, a branch 
of yachting which many amateurs follow as a 
recreation, offers an unlimited field for study and 
research, both in the line of the governing prin- 
ciples of naval architecture, and of their appli- 
cation to the creation of successful vessels. The 
man who can design his own yacht, large or 
small, construct her, or at least plan and super- 
vise the construction, and, finally, can guide her 
to the head of the fleet with his hand on the 
tiller and his active brain anticipating and check- 
ing each move of clever opponents, may well lay 
claim to one of the highest achievements within 
the reach of any sportsman. 



Introdiictioji • vii 

The importance of yachting to a maritime 
nation such as ours can hardly be overestimated. 
It is a stimulus to the advancement of naval 
architecture such as is necessary in maintaining 
the naval and merchant fleets at the highest 
standard ; it is a training school for seamen, both 
amateur and professional ; and its mimic battles 
for the different international trophies — that 
first awakened and now keep alive a thoroughly 
national interest in maritime supremacy — are 
constant reminders of the necessity for perpetual 
progress in all details of naval development. 

The history of American yachting is more 
than a mere dry record of victor and vanquished ; 
it is a summary of material progress in naval 
architecture and seamanship, of researches and 
discoveries that have redounded to the imme- 
diate benefit of the nation and ultimately of the 
world at large. At the same time it is a story 
of hard-fought battles, of some defeats that have 
been turned to profit in the end, and of many 
notable victories. 



CONTENTS 



I. Early American Yachts .... 

II. George Steers and his Work . 

III. The Birth of the New York Yacht Club 

IV. The Building of the " America '' 
V. The Winning of the Squadron Cup . 

VI. Design in America and England 

VII. The Day of the Great Schooners . 

VIII. The First Matches for the America Cup 

IX. The Development of Design in America 

X. The Battle of the Types .... 

XI. Burgess and the America Cup . 

XII. "Thistle" and the New Deed of Gift . 

XIII. " Clara," " Minerva," and the Forty-foot 

Class 

XIV. Herreshoff and "Gloriana" . 
XV. The Dunraven Challenges 

XVI. Small Yachting and the Seawanhaka Cup 

XVII. The Scow Type in Designing . 

XVIII. The "One-design" and Restricted Classes 

XIX. LiPTON AND THE THREE " SHAMROCKS " 

XX. Racing and Cruising in Small Yachts 

XXI. Steam Yachting in America 

Record of America Cup Matches .... 

Index 



PAGE 
I 

14 
26 

39 
53 
69 

87 
105 
124 
142 
165 



198 
211 
225 
247 
267 
280 
299 

323 
339 

359 

367 



IX 



AMERICAN YACHTING 

CHAPTER I 

EARLY AMERICAN YACHTS 

The designation of " yacht " is applied to a 
vessel not merely on account of her model and 
equipment, but largely from her use exclusively 
as a pleasure craft. The famous America was 
essentially a pilot-boat in model and construc- 
tion, as well as in deck and interior fittings ; 
and the yachts of a more remote period were 
practically working vessels, of one kind or an- 
other, devoted to pleasure use by wealthy owners. 
It is, consequently, a difficult matter to identify 
as yachts the vessels first used for pleasure sail- 
ing. There are vague traditions of yachts in use 
in the eighteenth century, and doubtless some 
of the old Dutch burghers of Nieuw Amsterdam 
made pleasure cruises on the Hudson River at 
a far earlier date ; but the first definite records 
begin with the advent of the nineteenth century. 
As early as 1816 there was built for an American 



2 American Yachting 

yachtsman a most remarkable vessel, — a yacht 
not only by use but by special design and fur- 
nishing, in which a long foreign cruise was made. 
Fortunately the full particulars of the yacht and 
her cruise have been preserved to the present 
time. 

The owner, Captain George Crowninshield, of 
Salem, Massachusetts, a typical American and a 
notable man in his day, was one of a family of 
East India merchants, — the trade of China and 
the East Indies then centring in the prosperous 
little seaport of Salem, on Massachusetts Bay. 
Each successive generation of Crowninshields 
was brought up after the custom of the time with 
the New England merchants, beginning with a 
common-school education which, ending at the 
age of eleven or twelve, included a thorough 
knowledge of theoretical navigation. Thus pre- 
pared, they were sent to sea before they were 
more than twelve years old, either before the 
mast or as captain's clerk. 

At the age of twenty such a boy was expected 
to command his own ship, making voyages of 
one or two years' duration, the success of which 
depended no less upon his skill as a seaman 
than upon his business ability in the handling 



Early American Yachts 3 

of valuable cargoes : that shipped at home being 
disposed of in the far East, and the return cargo 
being carried to some European port, where it 
would in turn be exchanged for a third, which 
would ultimately be landed at Salem or Boston. 
After half a dozen years of this work, the young 
skipper usually left the sea to take his place in 
the family counting-room as a junior member of 
the firm. It is this ancestry above all else that 
has given to Boston yachting that magnificent 
vitality so strongly in evidence at the present day 
in the devotion to real sailing and racing in the 
smaller classes of yachts. 

Captain George Crowninshield was born in 
1766, one of six brothers, the sons and grand- 
sons of merchant sailors. One of these died at 
Guadeloupe at the age of fourteen, being then 
ship's clerk on a Salem vessel, and the other five 
were all captains before they were twenty years 
of age. When the time came for him to leave 
the sea and enter the firm. Captain George de- 
voted himself to the very important work of 
supervising the building and fitting out of the 
ships, his tastes lying in this direction. It was 
while thus engaged, in 1801, that he had built, 
by Christopher Turner of Salem, a sloop of 22 



4 American Yachting 

tons, named Jefferso7i, which he used as a yacht. 
Some idea of the size of this craft may be ob- 
tained from her subsequent history. She was 
the second vessel commissioned as a privateer in 
1812, making one voyage with a crew of thirty 
and taking three prizes. In 181 5 she was sold 
to Gloucester and used for many years as a 
fisherman. 

On the death of the elder George Crownin- 
shield, in 181 5, the firm was dissolved, one of the 
sons, Benjamin, being then Secretary of the 
Navy under President Madison. Possessed of 
ample means, unmarried, and with nothing to 
occupy his time, George Crowninshield planned 
what would pass for a yacht, even at the present 
day. Some slight hint of the peculiarities of the 
vessel is given in her odd name, Cleopatrds 
Barge; at one time her owner proposed to cair 
her Car of Concordia. The model was planned 
from that of the America, a very fast vessel of 
600 tons, the finest of the old Crowninshield 
fleet, first famous as a merchant ship and then 
" razeed " and altered into a privateer during 
the War of 181 2, winning new laurels. The 
builder of the new yacht was Retire Becket, a 
ship-builder known to his fellow-townsmen by 



Early American Yachts 



the familiar nickname of " Tyrey," famous for his 
fast merchant ships. 

The work was begun in the spring of 1816, 
much care being taken in the selection and prep- 
aration of the timber cut in the woods of Essex 
County; the keel was laid in July and the yacht 
was launched on October 16. Every detail of 
hull, furniture, 

and rig was ;rfe== J^ 

planned by the 
owner, many 
original ideas 
being intro- 
duced. The 
furniture was 
of very elabo- 
rate design, 
and special 
services of silver and glass were made for the 
yacht. She was launched with rigging rove and 
sails bent, and nearly all her fittings in place ; 
but, through various delays, the original plan of 
sailing was changed, and she wintered at Salem. 
Here she was visited by persons from all the 
surrounding country, it being recorded that nine 
hundred inspected her on one day. 




Cleopatra's Barge. 



6 American Yachting 

The dimensions of Cleopatra s Barge were 83 
feet on the water-line, 23 feet breadth, and 11 
feet 5 inches depth of hold, her tonnage being 
191^ tons. It is an interesting coincidence that 
these dimensions were almost exactly duplicated 
in the cutter Mayflower^ built just seventy years 
later to defend the America Cup. One of the 
curious fads of the owner was the painting of the 
outside of the hull, one side in horizontal stripes 
of many colors, the other in a herring-bone pat- 
tern, also variegated. The cost was $50,000, a 
very considerable sum for the time, but the fur- 
nishing was especially costly and elaborate. 

Throughout the winter Captain Crowninshield 
lived on board the yacht, entertaining in the gen- 
erous fashion of the day, some of his visitors 
boarding her from sleighs as she lay in the ice 
of Salem Harbor. On March 30 she sailed, call- 
ing first at the Azores, then at Madeira and Gib- 
raltar. The summer was spent in a cruise of 
the Mediterranean, many prominent persons be- 
ing entertained on board, while casual visitors 
were admitted by hundreds; the log records 
that while at Barcelona eight thousand persons 
by actual count passed over the vessel. 

The yacht dropped her anchor in Salem Har- 



Early American Yacbis 7 

bor on October 3, 181 7, the crew was discharged, 
and she was moored alongside Crowninshield's 
Wharf. Her owner continued to live on board, 
meanwhile planning a second cruise to England 
and the Baltic in the following spring ; but on 
November 26 he was taken suddenly ill and died 
in a short time of heart disease. A most re- 
markable coincidence is that his intimate friend, 
Samuel Curwen Ward, his companion on the 
cruise, died in the town, but a short distance 
away, at almost the same moment. The yacht 
was sold at auction, bringing only #5000, and 
converted to a merchant vessel, making a voyage 
to South America, and later being used as a 
packet between Boston and Charleston, South 
Carolina. She was then used in the Pacific, 
being finally sold at the Sandwich Islands to 
King Kamehameha I, who used her as a royal 
yacht. After about a year she was wrecked 
through carelessness, and after lying neglected 
on a reef for months the hulk was finally taken 
to Honolulu, where it was visible for many years 
on the beach. 

The history of this yacht is most interesting. 
She was in no way a gradual evolution, but appar- 
ently a spontaneous growth at a day when pleasure 



8 American Yachting 

craft were unknown in this country. She was 
not, like the early English yachts, a mere adapta- 
tion of the smaller naval vessels of the day, but 
she was planned throughout as a yacht. At the 
same time, in the personality of her owner and in 
her derivation from the representative merchant 
vessels and privateers of the day, she was a fit- 
ting exemplification of American progress. Born 
of such an ancestry as the Crowninshields, and 
cradled in such a craft as Cleopatra s Barge, it 
is in no way surprising that the sport of yachting 
in its highest form has ever flourished within the 
protecting arms of Cap Cod and Cape Ann. 

The origin of yachting in New York is inti- 
mately intertwined, as in the East, with the his- 
tory of one of the old Colonial families. Colonel 
John Stevens was born in New York City in 
1749, he graduated from King's College, now 
Columbia, in 1786, and was admitted to the bar 
of the Colonial Provinces of New York and New 
Jersey in 1772. During the active period of the 
Revolution he was treasurer of the state of New 
Jersey. He purchased Hoboken, then an island 
of swamps and rocky hills, in 1784, establishing 
the family home on Castle Point, the beautiful 
promontory still overlooking the Hudson and 



Early American Yachts 



New York City, with the busy water front of 
Hoboken, the home of the present head of the 
family. As early as 1798 Colonel Stevens, with 
Chancellor Livingston, Nicholas J. Roosevelt, 
and Isambard Brunei, then an exiled French 
Royalist, but later known as the builder of the 
Thames Tunnel, inaugurated a series of experi- 
ments in the propulsion of vessels by steam 
on the Passaic River. 
Later on, in 1802- 
1804, Colonel Stevens 
produced an experi- 
mental boat, tried on 
the Hudson, with a 
most remarkable outfit 
for the day. The ves- 
sel was fitted with twin 
screws, each four- 
bladed and generally 
similar to those now in use ; the engine moved 
at a relatively high speed, being directly connected 
to the propeller shaft; the boiler was of the multi- 
tubular type, using steam at a high pressure. In 
this primitive craft lay the genesis of modern 
marine engineering, and it is in no way due to 
the talented inventor, but solely to the lack of 




English Cutter about 1820. 



lo American Yachting 

adequate shop facilities and accurate machine 
tools, that nearly half a century elapsed before 
his ideas were universally adopted. 

The succeeding generation of the Stevens 
family included four brothers, John C, Edwin 
A., Robert L., and James. Inheriting all the 
mechanical tastes and ability of the father and 
with ample means at their disposal, they en- 
tered with zest into both work and sport. To 
them is due the successful use of anthracite coal, 
the T rail now universally used for railways, 
with the rolls for forming it, the development 
of the screw propeller, the improvement of the 
marine beam engine, and various inventions in 
the line of military and naval ordnance. Follow- 
ing up an invention of the father, a revolving 
turret plated with iron, they designed and built 
at their own expense the " Stevens Battery," — 
an enormous experimental armor-clad war-ship. 
They were active alike in the technical and 
business sides of the development of railways 
and of steam navigation on the Hudson and 
the Delaware ; with all this they were ardent 
sportsmen, interested in horses, yachts, cricket, 
and field sports. 

In the boyhood of the Stevens boys — John C. 



Early American Yachts ii 

was born In 1 785 — there were no steam ferries, 
but the Hudson and the East rivers were 
crossed by rowboats, while Staten Island and 
points on the Kill von Kull were reached by 
means of the pirogue or "periagua," a flat-bot- 
tomed sailing craft used for ferriage. The 
Stevens boys were almost of necessity expert 
boatmen, crossing from their home to New 
York in their own rowing or sailing boats. As 
early as 1809 John C. Stevens owned a sail- 
boat of 20 feet length, named Diver ; and in 
18 16 he built Trouble, a periagua of 56 feet 
length, with a flat bottom and round bilge ; 
there was neither bowsprit nor jib, but one 
mast was stepped in the bow and the other 
amidships, each carrying a single sail. Four 
years later he experimented with a catamaran, 
Double Trouble, but she proved a failure. 

There is a long gap in the records, which was 
probably filled by successively larger yachts, for 
in 1832 Mr. Stevens had built by Bell & Brown, 
ship-builders of New York, the schooner Wave, 
of 65 feet water-line, sold to the government in 
1838 and used in the revenue service. 

Between the years 1830 and 1840 the use of 
small sailing vessels for pleasure became quite 



12 American Yachting 

common, especially among such men of wealth 
as were connected with shipping, the late R. B. 
Forbes of Boston, one of another famous yacht- 
ing family, being one of the leaders. These 
yachts followed in model the commercial vessels, 
pilot-boats, sailing packets, and fishing-boats of 
the day; among them were Dream, of 47 feet 
over all length, built by Webb & Allen, of New 
York; and Sylph, built in 1833, by Wetmore 
& Holbrook, of Boston, for John P. Gushing. 

The next venture of Mr. Stevens, in 1839, 
was the schooner Onkahie, of 91 feet water-line 
and 250 tons, — quite a large yacht. She had a 
very fine bow in comparison with existing yachts, 
with an iron keel for stability. After a cruise 
to the West Indies she was sold into the 
revenue service in 1843, ^^^ five years later 
she was lost in the West Indies. 

Fostered by such men as George Grownin- 
shield and John G. Stevens, yachting by degrees 
made its way into popular favor about Boston 
and New York. The larger yachts were owned 
mainly by gentlemen in some way connected 
with shipping, but at the same time there were 
many whose taste for sailing was perforce in- 
dulged in a more modest way, and who had 



Early American Yachts 13 

recourse to the smaller craft, perlaguas and fish- 
ing-boats, for pleasure sailing and later for 
racing. Environment naturally played a very 
important part in the development of types ; 
while the rough waters of Massachusetts Bay 
called for a safe and seaworthy model, especially 
in the smaller yachts, and the many small har- 
bors gave shelter for such craft, the compara- 
tively sheltered waters of New York Bay, the 
Hudson, and the west end of the Sound per- 
mitted the use of the shoal and wide centre- 
board boat, and at the same time the most 
available anchorages for yachts were on the 
flats off Hoboken, Communipaw, and South 
Brooklyn, where all commerce was barred by 
the shoal water. Here yachtsmen found cheap 
and safe anchorage grounds, and they naturally 
adapted their models to them, reducing the 
draft of hull to the lowest possible limit. 



CHAPTER II 



GEORGE STEERS AND HIS WORK 



As he progressed to 
larger yachts and more 
daring experiments, 
John C. Stevens became 
associated with another 
whose strong personal- 
ity has left an indelible 
imprint on American 
yachting. George Steers 
was the son of an Eng- 
lish shipwright, who 
learned his trade in the royal shipyard at Devon- 
port and immigrated to this country in 1817, 
first settling in Washington and working in 
the Navy Yard there, and later, in 1823, mov- 
ing to New York. Some of his thirteen chil- 
dren were born in England and others in 
this country. The date of George's birth is 




Old New York Pilot-boat. 



George Steers and bis Work 15 

given as 1820, or just after the family was 
established in Washington. The boys of the 
family, James R., Henry T., Philip, and 
George, took naturally to their father's trade. 
When nineteen years old, George built for him- 
self a yacht of 17 feet length, named Martin 
Van Bureji, which was very successful ; and a 
couple of years later he built for Mr. Stevens 
a very light rowing boat, for racing. Yacht 
designing, as it is now understood, was an un- 
known art at that day, but George Steers was 
probably grounded by his father in the ordinary 
principles of marine drafting and the laying 
down of vessels, and thus was better fitted for 
the work of modelling than many of his con- 
temporaries. At the age of twenty-two he 
modelled the schooner yacht La Coquille, 44 feet 
6 inches in length. Two years later he modelled 
the schooner Cygnet, 53 feet 2 inches in length, 
and with Mr. Stevens, the schooner Gimcrack, 
In 1847 he modelled and built the schooner 
Cornelia, of 74 feet, and the sloop Una, of 64 
feet, a remarkable yacht. 

Gimcrack, built by William Capes, in Hobo- 
ken, was a schooner of 51 feet over all length, 49 
feet on the water-line, 13 feet 6 inches breadth, 



1 6 American Yachting 

5 feet 2 inches depth, and 7 feet 6 inches extreme 
draft, — some four feet of this being made up by 



Cygnet, American Schooner. 
George Steers, 1844. 




Cygnet, British Cutter. 
Wanhill, of Poole, England, 1846. 

Typical yachts of two nations, showing full forward water-lines in use up to 1 848-50, 
with straight raking keel and V section. 

a plate of iron about twelve feet long, virtually a 
fin keel. That she is one of the historic craft of 



George Steers and bis Work 17 

American yachting is due not to her exceptional 
speed or excellent performance (she can hardly 
be termed a successful experiment), but because 
she was the cradle of the New York Yacht Club — 
the organization of the club being accomplished 
in her cabin on July 30, 1844. 

It is impossible to dissociate the work of 
Stevens and Steers, or to give credit to one 
rather than the other. The older man lacked the 
immediate technical training of the younger, but 
he possessed a wide experience in yachting and 
at the same time both he and his brothers were 
closely in touch with the leading minds of this 
country and Europe and fully conversant with all 
new theories and inventions. The work of the 
younger man was restricted to the designing and 
building of different classes of vessels, his ulti- 
mate triumph being the United States frigate 
Niagara, His opportunities for study, research, 
and experiment were more limited than those of 
Mr. Stevens. 

In those days of prosperous commerce and sail- 
ing packets the pilot-boat fleet was an important 
adjunct to the port of New York. Speed was an 
essential in these little ships, and yet at the same 
time their cruising ground, in winter as well as 



1 8 American Yachting 

summer, was on the open sea anywhere between 
Nantucket Shoals and Cape May. Early in his 
career George Steers became famous through his 
pilot-boats, and in 1849 he built one whose fame 
survives to the present day. The Mary Taylor, 
named after a popular actress and singer, was a 
remarkable boat in that her design was directly 
opposed to all established theories and traditions 
of naval architecture. Up to the building of Una, 
George Steers had followed the general form 
then found in all vessels, — the " cod's head and 
mackerel's tail " model, with round water-lines for- 
ward and a generally full forebody, finished out 
by a long, clean after-body; the form being well 
described by its popular designation just quoted. 
In the Mary Taylor this form was practically re- 
versed : the midship section was moved aft, the 
bow was made longer and much finer, and the 
after-body was filled out. The result of this 
change was nothing less than a revolution in de- 
signing, quickly imitated by other builders and 
ultimately affecting all classes of vessels. 

It is one of the most interesting facts in the 
whole history of American yachting that within 
the two years or less which elapsed between his 
work in modelling Una and his production of the 



George Steers and bis Work 



19 



Mary Taylor, George Steers, in defiance of firmly 
established precedent, turned his models end for 
end, making the bow approximately of the form 
previously considered suitable for the run, and 
vice versa. That some very powerful influence 
lay back of this change is apparent, but history is 
silent as to its nature. 
The most plausible 
supposition is that it 
came indirectly from 
a movement for a 
reform in designing 
instituted some years 
previously in England 
by John Scott Rus- ^'-^■ 
sell, the Scotch scient- 
ist and naval engineer. 
Though John C. Stevens figures most promi- 
nently in yachting history, his brothers, Edwin 
A. and Robert L., were closely associated with 
him in yachting, as in many lines of work and 
study ; the three were thoroughly conversant with 
the progress of art and science in the Old World 
and in communication with some of the leading 
engineers and inventors of the time. For some 
years previous to this John Scott Russell had 




Hudson River Sloop. 



20 American Yachting 

publicly advocated his new theory of the wave- 
line, advocating a long, fine bow with a marked 
hollow at the fore-end, and a much fuller curve 
for the water-lines of the run. Though he failed 
in awakening any widespread interest on the part 
of ship and yacht builders, some few were induced 
to consider the subject in a new light, and in 
1848 the iron cutter Mosquito was built on the 
Thames, one of her marked features being the 
long, hollow bow which all old salts predicted 
would take her speedily to the bottom in a sea- 
way. It is highly probable that the Stevens 
brothers were informed as to Scott Russell's 
theories, and that through their influence George 
Steers was first led to take up a new line of 
experiment. 

The Mary Taylor proved a great success, her 
superiority being demonstrated in her work out- 
side the Hook alongside of the old type of pilot- 
boat. In 1850 the "cod's head" bow of Maria 
was cut away and she was rebuilt forward, being 
lengthened to no feet on the water-line and 
116 feet on deck. It is impossible to gauge the 
exact success of this change, as racing was con- 
ducted in a very informal manner, with inade- 
quate allowances, and most of her opponents 



George Steers and bis Work 



21 



were much smaller than she ; but it seems prob- 
able that her speed in smooth water was decidedly 
improved. 

Between 1849 and the time of his death in 
1856, through a runaway accident in driving from 
his home on Great Neck, Long Island, to New 
York, George Steers, working in an unpreten- 




Typical Hudson River Packet Sloop. 

tious way, sometimes as the modeller of a yacht 
or a pilot-boat and often as the head of a ship- 
yard, directing personally the construction of ves- 
sels after his models, did much to improve the 
actual vessels and to advance the knowledge of 
naval architecture. He designed the pilot-boat 
Moses H, Grinnell and others equally famous in 
their day, the yachts Silvie and Ray, the latter 
still in commission as a cruising yawl ; he altered 
existing yachts and improved their speed, and he 
designed and built the fast sloop Julia, famous 



2 2 American Yachting 



i> 



for many years. His larger work included the 
United States frigate Niagara and some fast 
merchant vessels. His name is linked perma- 
nently with that of the schooner yacht America^ 
but she represents only a small part of the impor- 
tant work crowded into a brief career. 

In spite of their close association at this period, 
there is little to connect George Steers with the 
sloop Maria, one of the notable yachts of her 
time. She was built after Gimcrack, in 1845, ^^d 
her model is commonly ascribed to Robert L. 
Stevens. At this time the passenger and freight 
traffic of the Hudson River was carried on in a 
type of vessel distinct from the pilot-boats of the 
Lower Bay, the " North River sloop," of 75 to 100 
feet in length, very wide and of shoal draft, with 
a large centre-board, and rigged with a large and 
lofty mainsail and a single big jib. In spite of 
their bluff bows these unv/ieldy craft sailed fast 
in strong breezes and on a reach, and sometimes 
outsailed the yachts of the lower river. At times 
one of them was chartered for a cruise, and tradi- 
tion states that such was the case on the first 
cruise of the New York Yacht Club, in 1844, one 
of these chartered sloops with a party of yachts- 
men on board outsailing the yachts. 



Geom Steers and bis Work 



23 



It was shortly after this cruise that the Stevens 
brothers planned a new yacht on the lines of one 
of these sloops, she being finally named Maria, 
after the wife of John C. Stevens. She was built 
at William Capes s shipyard, in Hoboken, and 
apparently was not a success at the outset, as she 
was not raced until the end of her second season. 
Her dimensions 
w^ere : length on 
water-line, 92 
feet; breadth, 26 
feet 6 inches ; 
depth, 8 feet 3 
inches ; draft ex- 
treme, 5 feet 2 
inches. She was 
essentially a cen- 
tre-board sloop, 
of very light 
draft, the fore end of the keel being rockered up 
to a depth of but 8 inches at the fore-foot. 

There was a large centre-board about amid- 
ships, of iron, and counterbalanced by powerful 
spiral springs ; the hoisting gear consisted of a 
shaft running along the top of the centre-board 
trunk and carr}4ng two barrels, the larger one 




Maria. 



24 American Yachting 

aft, for the lifting chains ; so that as the shaft was 
revolved the after end of the board dropped more 
rapidly than the fore end. The weight of the 
board, including some lead ballast, was 7 
tons. The mast was hollow, bored out like a 
pump log ; while the boom, also hollow, was built 
of long staves, hooped together like a barrel and 
trussed within with iron rods. The cloths of 
both mainsail and jib ran parallel to the foot of 
each sail, so that the seams would offer no resist- 
ance to the wind. In the course of her many 
alterations the yacht had a large portion of her 
lead ballast placed outside the hull, not as a keel, 
but in a layer from five to two inches thick over 
the garboards and lower planking. She was also 
fitted with a second centre-board, a small one in 
the after dead-wood, to help the steering when 
off the wind. 

Her great size, and her type, which was spe- 
cially fitted for local conditions, made Maria a 
very successful yacht. In those days the races 
were started off Hoboken and the course was 
down the Hudson River and New York Bay, 
rounding the Southwest Spit; or sometimes go- 
ing outside Sandy Hook and rounding the light- 
ship. With the prevailing summer winds this 



George Steers and bis fVork 25 

made a reach out and back, and the great length 
of Maria, with her shoal draft and big rig 
of only mainsail and jib, gave her an advantage 
over the smaller yachts of deep model and rigged 
for cruising. 



CHAPTER III 



THE BIRTH OF THE NEW YORK YACHT CLUB 



In the 
infancy of 
yach t i ng 
there was 
Httle need 
for a yacht 
club in 
either Bos- 
ton or New 
York, but 
early in 
the forties 
yachts of 25 
to 50 tons 

were sufficiently numerous about New York to 
make racing possible. What was probably the 
first aquatic club in this country was the Knick- 
erbocker Boat Club of New York, organized in 
181 1, but dying in the following year. In 1830 
the New York Boat Club was organized, with a 

26 




Spray, N.Y.Y.G. 
Hamilton Wilkes, Esq. 



Tbe Birtb of the New York Yacbt Club 27 

membership of one hundred, including John C. 
and Robert L. Stevens, Ogden Hoffman, Samuel 
Verplanck, C. L. Livingston, and Robert Emmett. 
In 1835 some of the Boston merchants who were 
sailing in company on fishing trips and short 
cruises organized the Boston Yacht Club, but it 
had little more than a nominal existence, dying in 
a couple of years. In 1840 the Hoboken Model 
Yacht Club was organized ; little is known of its 
history, but it was not a club for sailing model 
yachts, as its name now implies, but an associa- 
tion of owners of sailing boats. 

It is no way surprising that when the number 
of yachts was such as to justify the union of 
yachtsmen the first steps were taken by John C. 
Stevens. His new schooner Gimcrack had been 
afloat barely a month when there was held on 
board her a meeting that marks one of the impor- 
tant dates in yachting history. The story of the 
meeting is best told in the following copy of the 
minutes : — 

Minutes of the New York Yacht Club 

On Board of the Gimcrack^ off the Battery, 

New York Harbor, July 30, 1844, 5.30 p.m. 

According to previous notice, the following gentle- 
men assembled for the purpose of organizing a yacht 



28 American Yachting 

club, viz. John C. Stevens, Hamilton Wilkes, William 
Edgar, John C. Jay, George L. Schuyler, Louis A. 
Depaw (Depau?), George B. Rollins, James M. Water- 
bury, James Rogers, and on motion it was resolved to 
form a yacht club. On motion it was resolved that 
the title of the club be the New York Yacht Club. 
On motion it was resolved that the gentlemen present 
be the original members of the club. On motion it 
was resolved that John C. Stevens be the Commo- 
dore of the club. On motion it was resolved that 
a committee of five be appointed by the Commodore 
to report rules and regulations for the government of 
the club. The following gentlemen were appointed, 
viz. John C. Stevens, George L. Schuyler, John C. Jay, 
Hamilton Wilkes, and Captain Rogers. On motion it 
was resolved that the club make a cruise to Newport, 
Rhode Island, under command of the Commodore. 

The following yachts were represented at this meet- 
ing, viz. Gimcrack, John C. Stevens ; Spray, Hamilton 
Wilkes ; Cygnet, William Edgar ; La Coquille, John C, 
Jay ; Dream, George L. Schuyler ; Mist, Louis A. De- 
paw; Minna, George B. Rollins; Adda, Captain Rogers. 
After appointing Friday, August 2, at 9 a.m., the time 
for sailing on the cruise, the meeting adjourned. 

John C. Jay, Recording Secretary. 

The cruise was duly made, and at Newport 
were met the schooner yacht Northern Light, 
owned by Colonel W. P. Winchester of Boston, 
and the Boston pilot-boat Belle, then under 
charter to Captain R. B. Forbes. These two 



The Birth of the New York Yacht Club 29 

gentlemen, with Mr. David Sears, were the first 
eastern yachtsmen to join the New York Yacht 
Club. 

On March 17, 1845, ^^^^ ^^st regular meeting 
of the club was held at Windhorst's coffee-house, 
on Park Row, the following officers being elected : 
Commodore, John C. Stevens; Vice-commo- 
dore, Hamilton Wilkes ; Recording Secretary, 
John C. Jay; Corresponding Secretary, George 
B. Rollins ; Treasurer, William Edgar. Just 
north of the rocky promontory, Castle Point, the 
home of the new commodore, lay the low flat 
shores of Weehawken, at that time a picnic 
ground for New Yorkers, under the name of 
the Elysian Fields. Here was built, as a home 
for the club, a modest and unpretentious wooden 
house, first occupied on July 15, 1845. Two days 
later the first regatta of the club was sailed, the 
course being from a line off Robbins Reef past 
a mark-boat off Bay Ridge on the Brooklyn shore, 
then past another mark-boat off Stapleton on the 
Staten Island shore, thence out through the Nar- 
rows and around the Southwest Spit buoy, return- 
ing over the same course. The following yachts 
started : — 



30 



American Yachting 



Cygnet .... 


schooner 


45 tons 


William Edgar 


Sibyl . . 






schooner 


42 tons 


C. B. Miller 


Spray . . 






schooner 


Sy tons 


Hamilton Wilkes 


La Coquillle 






schooner 


27 tons 


John C. Jay 


Minna . . 






schooner 


30 tons 


J. Waterbury 


Gimcrack . 






schooner 


25 tons 


Com. Stevens 


Nswburgh . 






sloop 


33 tons 


H. Robinson 


Adda . . 






sloop 


17 tons 


J. Rogers 


Lancet . . 






sloop 


20 tons 


George B. Rollins 



There is no record as to which of this fleet 
were keel and which centre-board boats, but the 
keels were probably in the majority. All were 
stanch, sturdy little ships, both wide and fairly 
deep, with broad sterns and very short overhangs 
forward and aft; they were all snugly rigged, 
with short stump bowsprits carrying single jibs, 
and short masts and gaffs. Where a topmast 
was carried it was an insignificant bit of stick, 
and light sails were simple and few in number. 
The yachts were rated at their custom-house 
measurement, the allowance being 45 seconds 
per ton per mile. The race was practically a 
sweepstakes, the entrance fees going to a cup 
for the winner, all racing in one class, with no 
distinction as to rig. The winner was Cygnet, 
her time being 5:23:15; the second boat was 



The Birth of the New York Yacht Club 31 

Sidy I, in 5:25:25; and the third was Gimcrack, in 

5:30:30. 

What is officially recorded as the first annual 
regatta of the club took place on July 16-18 of 
the following year. The course was changed 
to bring the start and finish off the club-house 
instead of off Robbins Reef, some six miles be- 
low ; but the outer mark was still the Southwest 
Spit buoy, this being retained as the regular 
club course for many years. The prizes for each 
day were cups costing $200 each; the two rigs 
were classed together, with the same allowance 
as in the previous year, and there was a time limit 
of eight hours. The schooners entered were 
G inter ack^ La Coquille, Sibyl^ Cygnet^ Brenda^ 
Lancet, Northern Light, Spray, Pet, Siren, 
Coquette, and Minna; the sloops were Newburgh 
and Mist, The last, of 44 tons, was the only one 
to complete the course within eight hours, her 
time being 7:37: 00. 

On the following day a second race was sailed 
under the same conditions, the starters being 
the schooners Gimcrack, Hornet, Min7ta, Sireii, 
Coquette, and Cygnet ; the sloops Mist, Pearsall, 
Ann Maria, and Dart. The order at the finish 
was Gimcrack, Mist, Hornet, Dart; Hornet, of 



32 



American Yachting 



25 tons, owned by Mr. A. Barker, winning on 
allowance. The three sloops Pearsall, Ann 
Maria, and Dart were apparently not yachts, 
but working boats admitted to the race. 

What would now be called the "fall regatta" 
of the club, sailed on October 6, 1846, was a most 
interesting race, the first " Corinthian " or amateur 
race sailed in America, and the official record is 
worth a place here, especially as Maria began her 
racing career. 

FIRST AMATEUR (CORINTHIAN) REGATTA 

OF THE 

NEW YORK YACHT CLUB 
October 6th, 1846 

For a cup subscribed for by members of the New York Yacht Club. 

None but members to sail and handle their yachts. 

The allowance of time on this occasion was reduced to 45 seconds per ton, 
custom-house measurement. 

The course was from a stake-boat (the Gimcrack) anchored off the club- 
house, Elysian Fields, thence to and around a stake-boat anchored off Fort 
Washington Point, thence to and around a stake-boat anchored in the Nar- 
rows, turning it from the east, and return to the place of starting, whole distance 
40 miles. 









(fi 




Ft. 


Nar- 




Act- 


Rig 


Name 


Owner 


z 



Start 


Wash. 


Finish 


ual 








H 




Point 






Time 


Sloop 


Maria 


John C. Stevens 


160 


10.58.20 


11.54.00 


2.38.10 


4,02.45 


5-04-25 


Sloop 


Lancet 


Geo. B. Rollins 


20 


10.00.00 


10.54.00 




4.36.09 6,36.09 


Schooner 


Siren 


W. E. Miller 


72 


10.21.40 


II. 17.00 


2.48.55 


4.24.20 6.02.40 


Schooner 


Cygnet 


D. L. Suydam 


45 


10. 10.4s 


11.05.00 


2.38,00 


4.26.15 6.15.30 


Schooner 


Spray 


Hamilton Wilkes 


37 


10.07.05 


1 1. 01. 00 


2,40.00 


4.28.31 6.21.26 


Schooner 


La Coquille 


John C. Jay 


27 


10.02.35 


10,58.00 


2.45.00 


4.29.12 6.26.27 



Tbe Birth of the New York Yacht Club 33 

The tide at starting was at the last of the flood. Tide turning ebb at 12 m. 
Wind strong from southwest. 

The Maria won, beating the Siren 58 minutes and 15 seconds on actual 
time. 

Regatta Committee : 

George L. Schuyler. 
Andrew Foster, Jr. 
William E. Laight. 



The season of 1847 opened with a match 
race, on May 25, over the club course, for $500 
a side between the schooners Sibyl, of 42 tons, 
Mr. C. Miller, and Cyg7tet, 45 tons, Mr. D. 
L. Suydam, the former winning. On May 31 a 
second match followed, over the same course and 
for the same stakes, between Cygnet and Cornelia, 
of 90 tons, built the previous year for Mr. William 
Edgar. Cornelia took the ground off Ellis 
Island shortly after the start and was out of the 
race. The annual regatta was sailed on June 2, 
the yachts being divided into three classes, but 
not on the basis of rig. The first class, of large 
yachts, included the schooners Cornelia and Siren 
and the sloop Maria; the second class included 
the new sloop Una with five of the older schooners 
and sloops ; and the third class was open to ves- 
sels, apparently not necessarily yachts, not enrolled 
in the club. The winners were Maria, Una, and 
Dart. 



34 



American Yachting 



The Corinthian race was repeated in the fall, 
the record being : — 



SECOND AMATEUR (CORINTHIAN) REGATTA 

OF THE 

NEW YORK YACHT CLUB 

October I2tk, 1847 

(Over the New York Yacht Qub Course) 

For a prize subscribed to and presented by the non-yacht-owners of the 

Club. The yachts to be manned and sailed exclusively by members, allowing 

each yacht a pilot, 

Edward Center, 

Lewis M. Rutherfurd, 

n. p. hosack, 

Regatta Committee. 

Entries 









Id 





Staten 


Long 




Home 
Stake- 


Rig 


Name 


Owner 


< 
2 


Start 


Island 

Stake- 


Island 

Stake- 


S.W. 
Sprit 








^ 




boat 


boat 






Schooner 


Gim crack 


J. C. Stevens 


25 


10.00.00 


12.19.23 








Schooner 


Dream 


Geo. L. Schuyler 


28 


10.02.00 










Schooner 


Spray 


Hamilton Wilkes 


37 


10.04.00 


12.04.5s 


12.12.10 




4.28.28 


Schooner 


Cygnet 


John R. Suydam 


45 


10.06.00 


12.06.35 


12.13.52 






Sloop 


Una 


J. M. Waterbury 


59 


10.08.00 


11.40.11 


11.47.00 


1.28.43 


34340 


Schooner 


Siren 


W. E. Miller 


72 


10.10.00 


12.07.02 


12.14.22 


2.02.05 


4.23.00 


Schooner 


Cornelia 


William Edgar 


94 


10.12.00 


12.21. II 









The Dream, Gimcrack, Cygnet, and Cornelia did not finish the race. The 
Cygnet ran aground on Staten Island and injured the keel. 
Wind fresh from the west. 
Sloop Una won the prize, a silver cup. 

The fleet now included a number of yachts, 
those modelled wholly or in part or built by 



The Birtb of the New York Yacbt Club 35 

George Steers being Gimcrack, La Coquille, of 
44 feet 6 inches length, Cornelia, of 74 feet length, 
and the sloop Una, a centre-board boat 65 feet on 
the water-line, 17 feet 8 inches breadth, 6 feet 
3 inches depth, and 6 feet 5 inches draft; her 
tonnage being 46 tons. 

The schooners Coqtiette and Bre7ida, both keel 
boats, were modelled and built by Winde & 
Clinkard, the former being 66 feet long and of 76 
tons, the latter 48 feet long. Small as she was, 
she has a notable record; in 1849 she cruised to 
Bermuda and there sailed a match with the British 
yacht Pearl, winning by fifty-five seconds, this be- 
ing the first Anglo-American international match. 
The schooner Spray, 37 tons, and 49 feet 8 inches 
over all, was built by Brown & Bell, ship-builders, 
of New York. There appears in the club records 
about this time the schooner Hornet, and a little 
later the schooner Sport, both of about 25 tons. 
The two are one and the same vessel, her origin 
being said to date back to 18 19, when she was 
built in Baltimore under the name of Hornet, 
being rebuilt by George Steers in 1847 and again 
in 1850, when she was renamed Sport, She sur- 
vived for many years after this, being used on the 
eastern coast, but her final fate is uncertain. 



36 American Yachting 

The measurement of the yachts of this day, 
the custom-house tonnage, was very irregular and 
unreliable, the yachts being entered at different 
figures for no apparent reason. Alterations were 
frequent, very radical changes being made in com- 
paratively new boats by owners who evidently 
were not satisfied with their craft. 

The term of office of Commodore Stevens lasted 
until 1854, in which year William Edgar was 
elected in his place, holding the office until 1859, 
when he gave way to Edwin A. Stevens, who con- 
tinued until 1866. On February 16, 1865, the 
club was incorporated " for the purpose of encour- 
aging yacht building and naval architecture and 
the cultivation of naval science." The old Ho- 
boken club-house was abandoned in 1868, the 
club establishing itself on the wooded bluff at 
Clifton, Staten Island, overlooking the Narrows, 
the old house being used for many years by a 
younger club, the New Jersey Yacht Club ; at 
the present time it is again in the possession of 
the New York Yacht Club. 

The first city quarters of the club were estab- 
lished in 1 87 1 in the house of the Jockey Club, 
on the corner of Madison Avenue and 27th Street. 
After the death of Commodore Garner, in 1876, 



Tbe Birfb of the New York Yacbt Club 37 

the club station, then on the dock at Stapleton, 
Staten Island, was abandoned ; and for many years 
the club had no waterside station. In 1884 it 
moved into the building at 67 Madison Avenue, 
where it was comfortably housed until it outgrew 
the limited quarters as a consequence of the great 
increase of membership resulting from the America 
Cup matches of 1885, 1886, and 1887. In 1901 it 
moved into the magnificent house specially built by 
it on West 44th Street, — the finest building of the 
kind in the world. After the abandonment of a 
permanent waterside station the club established 
landing-places for the convenience of its members 
off the principal New York anchorage grounds, at 
Staten Island, Bay Ridge, and on the East River. 
At the present time it maintains a very perfect 
system of club stations at all the important ports 
between New York and Vineyard Haven, each 
with a house giving temporary shelter to mem- 
bers, with telephone connection, etc., and a land- 
ing-stage. 

For twenty years the New York Yacht Club 
was the one organized representative of American 
yachting. The Southern Yacht Club, of New Or- 
leans, was organized as early as 1849, t)ut its influ- 
ence has always been local ; the North Carolina 



38 American Yachting 

Yacht Club was organized in 1854, but it, too, 
was necessarily a local club. In 1857 the Brook- 
lyn Yacht Club was organized, followed in 1858 
by the Jersey City Yacht Club; but it was not 
until the close of the War of the Rebellion that 
clubs became numerous, between 1866 and 1872 
many clubs being formed along the Atlantic sea- 
board. 



CHAPTER IV 

THE BUILDING OF THE AMERICA 

Through the work thus outHned on the part 
of John C. and Edwin A. Stevens and their 
associates in the club, and of George Steers, 
American yachting was established upon solid 
foundations of fair sporting usage and technical 
progress ; regattas and private matches were 
common among the larger yachts, and modellers 
and builders were encouraged to work for the 
improvement of the craft. The public interest 
awakened by the racing of such yachts as Maria, 
Cornelia, and Una found expression in the 
general racing of small open boats in New 
York waters. 

The yachts differed widely in model, many 
being keel boats of the general type of the pilot- 
boats and fishing-boats, while others followed the 
shoal freighting smacks of the day ; but all were 
of the " cod's head and mackerel's tail " model. 
The evolution of a distinctive yacht type pro- 
gressed but slowly, the keel holding its own for a 

39 



The Building of the America 41 

time, though local conditions, as exemplified in 
the shoal waters of the anchorage ground and of 
parts of New York Harbor where short cuts 
were possible to yachts of light draft, with the 
reaching course down the river and back, all 
tended toward the one dominant type that pre- 
vailed from i860 to 1880. 

The first experiment with the comparatively 
fine bow of Gimcrack, followed by the success of 
the Mary Taylor, the Hagstaff, the Grinnell 2^ndi 
other Steers pilot-boats, wrought a great change 
in the principles of modelling, and about 1850 
yachtsmen began to lengthen the bows of their 
craft. In that year Maria was taken in hand, 
and her over-all length was increased from 92 
to 1 10 feet, giving her a hollow bow in place of 
the old bluff one. 

The project for a great world's fair, the first 
of the kind, to be held in London in the follow- 
ing year, was well known in America, and invi- 
tations had been received by the representatives 
of various industries to take part in what was 
planned to be an exposition of the world's prog- 
ress in arts and manufactures. The reputation 
of the New York pilot-boats, familiar to every 
seaman on British steamers and packets, had 



42 ■ American Yacbting 

extended to England; and in the fall of 1850 the 
suggestion was made by a British merchant to 
some of his New York correspondents that one 
of these boats should be sent to England to take 
part in the races planned as an auxiliary feature 
of the exhibition. This letter was laid before 
Commodore Stevens and Mr. George L. Schuy- 
ler, who immediately fell in with the idea. 
Arrangements were made for the building of a 
representative craft, to be modelled by George 
Steers and built under his supervision. At this 
time, just after the dissolution of the firm of 
Hathorne & Steers, Mr. Steers was employed in 
the yard of William H. Brown, at the foot of 
East 12th Street, New York, and the con- 
tract for the construction of the proposed vessel 
was made with Mr. Brown. 

It is a curious fact that in those days, when 
yachting was mainly supported by the individual 
efforts of a few men, even a yacht club being 
still an experiment, there should have been 
formed a "syndicate," such as is now common 
in the defence of the America Cup. The mem- 
bers of this first yachting syndicate were Com- 
modore John C. Stevens, Edwin A. Stevens, 
George L. Schuyler, Colonel James A. Hamilton, 



The Building of the America 43 

J. Beekman Finley, and Hamilton Wilkes. The 
yacht was to be named Ainerica, the author of 
this suggestion being unknown, though it evi- 
dently appealed to all as a suitable name. 

Instead of following the model of Maria or 
Una, it was decided to build virtually a pilot- 
boat, of about 140 tons, a keel craft in every 
way fitted for the ocean voyage. The contract 
was a peculiar one, and distinctly to the ad- 
vantage of the " syndicate " ; the price of the 
yacht completely equipped for sea and furnished 
was to be $30,000; when ready for sea she was 
to be tried by an " umpire," Mr. Hamilton Wilkes, 
for a period of twenty days at the expense of 
the syndicate ; and if she should not prove faster 
than any other vessel in the United States, the 
syndicate should be under no obligation to accept 
or pay for her. It was further provided that if 
the preliminary trial should prove satisfactory 
the syndicate might take her to Europe, race her 
there, and, if not successful, return her to the 
builder, merely paying the expenses of the trip. 
A special stipulation was made to the effect that 
the yacht should be ready for trial by April i, 185 1. 

It is perhaps unnecessary to say that the 
yacht was not ready by the appointed date, nor 



44 American Yachting 

even by May i, to which time the agreement 
was extended ; she was not launched until 
May 3, and on May 24, Mr. Schuyler, who had 
charge of the negotiations, made a flat offer to 
purchase her outright for the sum of ^20,000 in 
cash, provided that she were delivered, " finished 
as per contract, equipped and ready for sea," on 
or before the second day of June. Even this 
late condition was not complied with, and only 
on June 18 was the yacht delivered to her 
owners. Prior to this, however, the new yacht 
had been tested in a series of informal trials 
against Maria, on New York Bay, and she had 
met some of the other yachts of the club. That 
Maria won very easily was but natural ; she was 
a larger yacht, presumably in good racing form 
and known to her skipper and crew, and in type 
and rig she was specially adapted to the course. 
The new yacht was of a different type and rig, 
designed for sea-going ; she was but partially com- 
pleted, and there had been no time for tuning 
up. In her trials with other yachts of the day 
America proved more successful, and her owners 
were evidently in no way discouraged by the 
showing against Maria, as they vigorously pushed 
the preparations for the projected voyage. 



The Building of the Artierica 45 

It would be unfair to class George Steers as 
a " rule-o'-thumb " builder according to the mean- 
ing of the term in recent years, as the majority 
of those so designated were men who, with a 
very limited knowledge of naval architecture, 
were wedded to some one special model or fad, 
after which all their vessels, regardless of size 
or use, were fashioned. He, on the other hand, 
was ever busy with experiments and open to 
the reception of new ideas, his work showing 
a regular progress toward better things. At 
the same time, his methods were those of the 
" rule-o'-thumb " builder as distinguished from 
those of the modern yacht designer. While he 
was skilled in ordinary ship drafting and mould- 
loft practice, the basis of his work was the 
half-model cut in miniature from the solid block 
of pine. From this model the measurements of 
the keel, stem, counter, and sections were taken 
by him, and the lines were laid down full size 
on the floor of the mould loft, the moulds for the 
timbers being made from these lines. It was his 
custom, we are told, not merely to alter the 
lines as they were laid down by himself or 
under his personal direction, filling out in one 
place or fining the form in another; but after 



46 American Yachting 

the vessel was in frame he did not hesitate to 
make further alterations if the desirability sug- 
gested itself. 

It is very difficult to make sense of the cryptic 
saying attributed to him, " that for a vessel to sail 
easily, steadily, and rapidly, the displacement of 
water must be nearly uniform along the lines." 
As a matter of fact the displacement and conse- 
quent replacement are not uniform, but first 
increase and then decrease in rapidly varying 
ratios ; but we know that he placed a high value 
upon the "diagonals," or more properly the 
"dividing lines," as shown by the temporary 
" ribbands " used to hold the frames in place, and 
by the general run of the plank edges, in this 
respect being in accord with the practice of the 
designers of to-day. It would appear that special 
fads and fancies as to a particular form of mid- 
ship section, bow lines, or run were subordinated 
in his mind to the idea of producing an easy and 
gradual flow of water at the bow, passing partly 
under and partly around the middle body with an 
increasing speed, and gradually losing its mo- 
mentum as it came up from below to fill the 
hollow made by the middle body. The wide 
variety of his work and the excellence of many 



Tbe Building of the America 47 

individual vessels prove that he sought to work 
from the broad principles of naval architecture, 
rather than from narrow localisms and personal 
fads. 

It is probable that each vessel was the result 
of careful thought and deliberation ; but the pres- 
ent system, by which a design is worked out on 
paper to the most minute detail of form, con- 
struction, sparring, rigging, and fitting, with speci- 
fications from which any builder may execute 
the work, was unknown at that time. As a con- 
sequence, most of the data relating to the design 
of America were a matter of personal knowledge 
on the part of her designer, never being com- 
mitted to paper. There is no reliable building 
model of her extant, nor are there any working 
drawings. Many copies of her lines, of more or 
less doubtful authenticity, have been published, 
most of them presenting glaring discrepancies. 
The design here given is said to have been taken 
secretly by the draftsmen of a yard at which the 
yacht was docked for a short time, in England, 
the work being done without the knowledge of 
the then owner, who, when approached afterward 
on the subject of having such a record of the 
actual form of the yacht, refused to consider such 



48 



American Yachting 



an idea; consequently the fact of the lines hav- 
ing already been taken was kept as a secret of 
the yard for many years. These lines in their 
original form give evidence of the handiwork of 
skilled draftsmen, and they agree substantially 
with the most reliable plans and information de- 
rived from various other sources. The dimen- 
sions given according to modern methods are as 
follows : — 



Length, over all . 
Length, load water-line 
Overhang, forward 
Overhang, aft 
Breadth, extreme 
Breadth, load water-line 
Freeboard, bow . 
Freeboard, least . 
Freeboard, taffirail 
Draft, extreme 



Feet 



Inches 



lOI 


9 


90 


3 


5 


6 


6 


— 


23 


— 


22 


6 


7 


6 


3 


9 


5 


6 


II 


— 



The freeboard as given is to the deck, above 
this was a bulwark and rail fourteen inches high ; 
the greatest breadth was about halfway between 
the deck and the water, the bows having a fine 
bold flare, while the topsides tumbled in a little 
amidships and considerably more on the counter. 



The Building of the America 49 

The fore overhang was short in itself and in- 
cluded very little false work in the way of clipper 
stem or figurehead ; the counter was very short, 
as in the pilot-boats of a much later date. The 
depth or keel outside the rabbet was 2 feet 4 
inches, all of wood, the ballast being iron stowed 
inside. 

The hull was built of the woods in common 
use about New York, oak, hackmatack, locust, 
cedar, yellow and w^hite pine. The planking 
was of white oak, 3 inches thick. The deck is 
described as of yellow pine, 2^ inches thick ; but 
this is probably an error, white pine being then 
in universal use for all small vessels. Clamps 
and deck beams were of yellow pine, the rails of 
white oak, 6 by 3 inches, and the coamings and 
deck fittings of mahogany. The bottom was 
coppered to a point 6 inches above the water- 
line, and the topsides were painted in lead color, i 
probably merely one of the priming coats ; after 
arriving at Havre they were repainted black. On 
the stern was a large figure of an eagle, gilded, 
with two white banners in his talons and wreaths 
of green flowers or leaves ; this trophy ultimately 
found a permanent resting-place as the signboard 
of the Eagle Hotel, at Ryde, Isle of Wight. 



50 American Yachting 

The arrangement below was patterned after 
the pilot-boats. There was an oval cockpit, shown 
in the plans referred to as of lo feet in fore-and- 
aft length and extending into the counter, the 
rudder post coming up through it; from this a 
companion led to the steerage, with a bath-room 
to starboard and a clothes-room to port ; the sail 
locker being in the lazarette, beneath the cock- 
pit. The main saloon extended to the mainmast, 
being i8 feet in length and of the full width of 
the ship ; it was fitted with lockers and six berths. 
The headroom aft was about 6 feet 6 inches, but 
there was a break in the deck just forward of the 
mainmast, reducing the headroom to 6 feet in 
the middle and forward part of the vessel. For- 
ward of the main saloon were four staterooms, 
each nearly eight feet square, and forward of 
them were the galley and pantry. The fore com- 
panion was placed nearly amidships, between the 
masts, and over the galley, the forecastle extend- 
ing well abaft the foremast Here there were 
berths for fifteen. There was a circular skylight 
over the forecastle, just abaft the foremast, and 
a large, square skylight over the saloon. 

The mainmast was 8i feet long, the foremast 
79 feet 6 inches, and the bowsprit 32 feet. The 



The Building of the America 51 

masts had an excessive rake, 2^ inches to the 
foot. The main boom was 58 feet long, the main 
gaff 26 feet, and the fore gaff 24 feet, there being 
no boom on the foresail ; there was a light main- 
topmast, but no foretopmast, and a large single 
jib. The sails were made by R. H. Wilson, of 
New York, the total area being 5263 square feet 
in mainsail, foresail, and jib. With the racing 
gear, they were stowed in the hold on leaving 
New York, some old sails of the Mary Taylor 
being used for the ocean passage. 

At 8 A.M. on June 21, 1851, the yacht left her 
builder's yard and was taken in tow by a steamer, 
which left her outside Sandy Hook at 1 1 a.m. 
There were thirteen persons on board. Captain 
" Dick " Brown, the skipper (a Sandy Hook pilot 
and one of the owners of the Mary Taylor), 
Nelson Comstock, the mate, a crew of six before 
the mast, and a cook and a steward. As passen- 
gers went George Steers, his brother, James R. 
Steers, and the latter's young son, Henry Steers, 
then fifteen years old, who afterward made a name 
for himself as a successful ship-builder and busi- 
ness man. 

The yacht was bound for Havre, and she 
reached there in good season, the voyage taking 



52 American Yachting 

but twenty-one days. Commodore Stevens, with 
his brother Edwin and Colonel Hamilton, the 
father-in-law of Mr. Schuyler, had preceded them 
by steamer, spending a couple of weeks in Paris 
and joining the yacht on her arrival. Three 
weeks were spent at Havre in refitting the vessel, 
bending the racing sails, painting, and making 
ready for racing; then, on July 31, she weighed 
anchor and stood across the English Channel to 
the Solent. 



CHAPTER V 

THE WINNING OF THE SQUADRON CUP 

There was no wind on the morning of Au- 
gust I, when the America s party was first astir, 
but a breeze about 9 o'clock brought a visitor in 
the shape of the cutter Laverock, then a new boat, 
of about 70 tons, which came out from Cowes to 
try the mettle of the invader, whose coming had 
already been heralded among British yachts- 
men. The spirit of the Americas owners is 
clearly shown by the fact that while it was mani- 
festly to their advantage to conceal the true 
speed of their yacht, and there was nothing un- 
sportsmanlike in such a course, they preferred to 
accept this first empty challenge, though handi- 
capped by the stores carried across the ocean, the 
schooner being some inches below her designed 
water-line and the breeze being light. Without a 
word on either side, it was a race from the time 
the Yankee weighed anchor, after waiting until 
it was evident that she would not be allowed to 
start without giving a test of her speed. 

53 



54 American Vac Ming 

At the time when the "New Deed of Gift" 
was the subject of some bitter criticism on both 
sides of the Atlantic, in 1 887-1 888, the term "prac- 
tical yachtsmen " was introduced into the contro- 
versy by some of the Boston defenders of the 
" New Deed," being applied to yachtsmen who, 
though sailing literally within the rules, measured 
well the chances of success before starting in a 
race, and waived no advantages, however unfair, 
which increased their chances of winning. It is 
evident that Commodore Stevens and his asso- 
ciates were made of different stuff; in this case 
they had nothing to gain and everything to lose 
by disclosing the true quality of their yacht to the 
inquisitive Laverock, and they would have vio- 
lated no ethics of sport in employing the little 
tricks of sailing to such an end that they should 
be outsailed. 

Thirty years later, when the little Scotch cut- 
ter Madge was sent out from Glasgow to New 
York on a similar voyage of conquest, her man- 
agement was intrusted by her owner to James 
Duncan, an exceptionally discreet and skilful 
Scotch skipper. After fitting her out at New 
York he sailed her about the Bay day after day, 
having pleasant little brushes with different fast 




The America Cup. 

Originally the Royal Yacht Squadron Cup of 1851, offered for an open race of 
yachts of all classes around the Isle of Wight. 



The 14^ inning of the Squadron Cup 57 

sloops, all of which easily beat the visitor, to the 
vast amusement of American yachtsmen. It was 
not until several matches were made and the first 




America as Originally Rigged. 

one actually sailed that the owners of the sloops 
awoke to the fact that the wily Duncan had made 
fools of them as well as of the newspapers, by 
killing the speed of his boat in the informal 
trials. 



58 American Yachting 

A similar course on the part of Commodore 
Stevens would have enabled the party to clinch 
some matches with the British yachts, the object 
of their long voyage ; but such a course was never 
thought of, and this first rather impertinent and 
pointless challenge was accepted in earnest. 

At the dinner given in their honor after the 
return to New York, Commodore Stevens de- 
scribed the incident in words well worth quoting : 
" During the first five minutes not a sound was 
heard save, perhaps, the beating of our anxious 
hearts or the slight ripple of the water upon her 
swordlike stem. The captain (Dick Brown) was 
crouched down upon the floor of the cockpit, his 
seemingly unconscious hand upon the tiller, with 
his stern, unaltering gaze upon the vessel ahead. 
The men were motionless as statues, their eager 
eyes fastened upon the Laverock with a fixedness 
and intensity that seemed almost supernatural, 
The pencil of an artist might, perhaps, convey 
the expression, but no words can describe it. It 
could not and did not last long. We worked 
quickly and surely to windward of her wake ; the 
crisis was past, and some dozen of deep-drawn 
sighs proved that the agony was over." 

Brief as it was, this race measured the wonder- 



The IV inning of the Squadron Cup 59 

ful windward powers of the visitor and made it 
impossible for her to make any matches with the 
British yachts. Every courtesy and the warmest 
hospitahty w^ere showered upon the party, the 
yacht was praised by the Enghsh papers, and the 
members of the Royal Yacht Squadron and all 
other yacht owners were condemned for the lack 
of spirit which led them to decline a friendly 
contest with the single daring visitor. 

A challenge to sail the America against any 
fleet of schooners was passed unnoticed, and a 
second and more specific challenge to race any 
yacht, without receiving the usual allowance for 
rig from cutters, for any stake from a simple cup 
up to 10,000 guineas, met the same fate. The 
one notable exception was Robert Stephenson, 
the great engineer, who made a match to sail his 
schooner Titania, of 100 tons, against the America 
for ;^ioo, the course to be twenty miles out and 
back from the Nab Light. 

It is a curious coincidence that barely a week 
after the America was launched in New York the 
Royal Yacht Squadron had decided to offer a 
cup costing 100 guineas as a prize for a race 
around the Isle of Wight, to be open to yachts of 
all nations. The date of this race had been set 



6o American Yachting 

for August 22, and when, after a couple of weeks, 
it became evident that no matches could be made 
with the representative yachts of the Squadron, 
the America party, though anxious to return 
home, determined to start in this race if the wind 
were not too light. 

The day came, and it was Friday too, with a 
light westerly breeze, the course being from off 
Cowes to the eastward, passing inside the Noman 
and Sandhead buoys, and, according to the printed 
programme, outside the Nab light-ship, moored 
some three miles east of the Isle of Wight. After 
the finish a protest was made against the America 
by Mr. George Ackers, owner of the big schooner 
Brilliant, on the ground that she had not passed 
outside the Nab light-ship, which was a fact ; but 
the protest was dismissed by the committee, as it 
was proved that the instructions given to Com- 
modore Stevens made no mention of this mark. 
Twenty years later, in the second match for the 
recapture of the Cup, a somewhat similar protest 
was made by the challenger, Mr. Ashbury. 

The fleet that met the Yankee schooner on 
August 2 2, 185 1, was a representative one, not of 
the best of the British racing yachts of the day, 
but of the yachts then owned by the most promi- 



The IV inning of the Squadron Cup 6i 

nent yachtsmen and regularly raced in the Queen's 
Cup and other important events of each yachting 
season. The list of starters was as follows : — 



Yacht 


Rig 


Tonnage 


Owner 


Beatrice . . . 


Schooner 


161 


Sir W. P. Carew 


Volante 






Cutter 


48 


J. L. Cragie 


Arrow . . 






Cutter 


84 


T. Chamberlayne 


Wyvern 






Schooner 


205 


Duke of Marlborough 


lone . . 






Schooner 


75 


A. Hill 


Constance . 






Schooner 


218 


Marquis of Conyngham 


Titania 






Schooner 


ICK) 


Robert Stephenson 


Gipsy Queen 






Schooner 


160 


Sir H. B. Hoghton 


Alarm . . 






Cutter 


193 


Joseph Weld 


Mona . . 






Cutter 


82 


Lord Alfred Paget 


Brilliant . 






Schooner, 3 masts 


392 


George Ackers 


Bacchante 






Cutter 


80 


B. H. Jones 


Freak . . 






Cutter 


60 


W. Curling 


Stella . . 






Cutter 


65 


R. Frankland 


Eclipse . . 






Cutter 


50 


H. S, Fearon 


Fernande . 






Schooner 


127 


Major Martin 


Aurora . . 






Cutter 


47 


T. Le Merchant 


America . 






Schooner 


170 


J. C. Stevens, <f/ als. 



This fleet included all gradations of size and 
quality, mostly in inverse proportions ; the largest 
vessel, Brilliant, was a huge old cruising craft, 
rigged with three masts, square topsails on fore 
and main, a promising entry for a race largely to 
windward in a light breeze. On the other hand 
Volante, then a new yacht, and Aurora, about a 



62 American Yachting 

dozen years old, were smart little racing cutters, 
embodying the best practice of the day. Arrow, 
then thirty years old, and Alarm, some eight 
years younger, were noted as among the largest 
racing cutters. Titania, then a new yacht, was 
comparatively fine forward, being built to test the 
wave line theory of Mr. John Scott Russell; but 
she was then an experiment and by no means a 
successful one owing to faulty rig and other de- 
tails. Practically all the others were of the " cod's 
head and mackerel's tail" model, with very full 
bows. Mosquito, the opening wedge in England, 
as the Mary Taylor and America were in this 
country, was not entered; nor had she then, 
though four years old, made any marked repu- 
tation. 

All of these vessels were alike in one particular: 
their sails were made from hand-woven canvas, of 
flax, very loose in texture, and, according to the 
universal theory of the day, cut with excessive 
bag or fulness. The sails of the America were 
of cotton, woven by machine into a hard, even 
fabric, and cut to sit as flat as possible ; though 
few in number and small in area, they were most 
effective drivers off the wind ; however, owing to 
the excessive rake of the masts, the weight of the 



The IViiniing of the Squadron Cup 63 

booms caused them to swing inboard, and it was 
necessary to boom them out in any light breeze. 

The original rig included only the single big 
jib, but shortly before the race it was decided to 
add a flying jib-boom and flying jib or jib topsail. 
George Steers went to Michael Ratsey, the yacht 
modeller and builder, of East Cowes, for the jib- 
boom, and by way of payment made a bet with 
Ratsey that the America would beat any schooner 
named by the latter, who picked Beatrice, Steers 
then went to a sailmaker, probably one of the 
Ratsey family also, and bought a jib topsail on 
the same terms, to be paid for only in the event 
of the America losing the race. It is perhaps as 
well that they were not called on to pay for either, 
as they seem to have done little good. The yacht 
had been on the wind but a short time when about 
a quarter of the course was covered before a fresh 
puff of wind carried away the new jib-boom ; to 
the intense satisfaction of " Dick " Brown, ex- 
pressed in the remark that he was " d — d glad 
that it was gone," as he did not believe in carry- 
ing a flying jib to windward — a piece of wisdom 
that would have saved many a good topmast in 
later days if generally recognized by skippers. 

The yachts were moored in a double line, mak- 



64 American Yachting 

ing sail at the first signal, 9.55, and casting off 
moorings at the starting signal, 10 a.m. Fernande 
was not present, and Titania and Stella did not 
start, leaving fifteen yachts in all. Gipsy Queen 
was first away, followed by Beatrice^ then Volante, 
Constance, and Arrow, America started slowly, 
her crew taking their time at first, but when under 
way, though carrying no running sails, with only 
her three lower sails, a small main gaff topsail, 
and the flying jib, she soon moved toward the 
head of the fleet. Yachts, steamers, and other 
vessels in great numbers followed the race through 
the morning, for at least half the way around the 
island. 

At the Noman Buoy, about 7-|- miles from the 
start, the order was: Volante, Freak, Aurora, 
Gipsy Queen, America, Beatrice, Alarm, Arrow, 
and Bacchante, there being but two minutes be- 
tween the Am^erica and the leader. The wind 
was very variable, S.S.W. in general direction, as 
the yachts passed to the south of the island, fresh- 
ening and then dying away. When off Ventnor 
on the southern shore, near the point where Bri- 
tannia and Vigilant fought out a historic luffing- 
match forty-three years later, the America led her 
nearest rival, Aurora, by a mile; and the fleet 



The H^ inning of the Squadron Cup 65 

had been reduced in number. Wyvern had turned 
back near the Noman Buoy, Volante had sprung 
her bowsprit and withdrawn, Arrow was ashore, 
and Alarm gave up and went to her assistance. 
Though the wind fell light near the Needles (the 
extreme west point of the island) and a light haze 
covered the sea, the America held her long lead 
of the fleet, Aurora being now half a dozen miles 
astern. The royal yacht Victoria and A Idert^ vj'iih. 
her Majesty Queen Victoria on board, came out 
to meet the yachts, and was saluted by the leader. 
The wind continued light through the early even- 
ing, as under a cloudy sky the Yankee yacht made 
her way slowly up the Solent to the finish line, 
where she was timed at 8 : 34, the band playing 
" Yankee Doodle." On the way up the Solent 
Aurora had gained, finishing at 8 : 58 ; by Ackers' 
Scale, the time allowance then in use, she would 
have been beaten something less than two min- 
utes corrected time had the race been sailed with 
allowance. Bacchante was timed at 9 : 30, Eclipse 
at 9 : 45, and Brilliant at i : 20 on Saturday morn- 
ing ; the records give no time for the other six. 

On the following day the queen visited the 
yacht, which had anchored by request off Os- 
borne House, coming on board in her barge with 



66 American Yachting 

the prince consort and her suite. On being 
shown over the vessel, even to the forecastle, 
she expressed a great interest in everything. On 
August 25 the race for the Queen's Cup of the 
year took place, but the America did not start, 
the reason assigned being that the breeze was 
below six knots' strength, though it is certain that 
she had everything to gain and nothing to lose, 
whatever the weather. As the wind soon fresh- 
ened, however, she started in chase after the 
others had been gone for an hour and a half, 
finally finishing ahead of the leaders, — though, 
of course, not timed. On August 28 the match 
with Titania was sailed, in a strong breeze, the 
course being twenty miles to windward and re- 
turn, from the Nab light-ship. The fore gaff of 
the America was carried away on the wind and 
some time lost in repairs, but she won by fifty- 
two minutes. Shortly after this the yacht was 
sold for ^5000 to Lord John de Blaquiere, an 
officer in the Indian army, and with the Cup in 
their possession Comm.odore Stevens and his 
associates took a steamer for New York. 

In historic importance this race for the Royal 
Yacht Squadron Cup far surpasses all other 
events of yachting ; its influence on the sport at 



The PV inning of the Squadron Cup 67 

large, on the progress of design, construction, and 
sail-making in the two nations, on their future 
social and political relations, can hardly be esti- 
mated. The whole history of yachting down to 
1 848- 1 849, the dates of the building of Mosquito 
in England and Mary Taylor in New York, may 
be considered as merely a formative period ; and 
this race for the Cup marked the beginning of real 
yacht racing ; or perhaps more correctly, the sys- 
tematic racing of yachts built for that purpose as 
well as for cruising. 

The race w^as for a cup paid for by the Royal 
Yacht Squadron and given for all time, with no 
qualifications, to the first yacht which finished, 
regardless of size, rig, or restrictions. Though 
commonly called the " Queen's Cup," even by 
experienced yachtsmen and yachting writers, it 
was not ; and as we have just seen, the America 
never raced for a queen's cup, merely sailing 
over the course with the yachts which were 
officially timed. 

The Royal Yacht Squadron Cup, since, by 
general usage, known as the " America Cup," 
thus became the joint property of six gentlemen, 
all members of the New York Yacht Club. As 
it could not be divided, it was by common con- 



68 American Yachts 

sent assigned to the possession of Commodore 
John C. Stevens, the moving spirit of the venture. 

The fifteen yachts which raced for the Cup 
were all entered on an absolutely equal basis; 
each represented individual ownership, and not a 
yacht club ; each sailed only to win the Cup from 
fourteen competitors ; and had one British yacht 
won, the Cup would have been the private prop- 
erty of her owner for all time. 

On its technical merits the race was a mere 
drifting match, decided largely by chance. Had 
the America been defeated, it would have been in 
no way to her discredit; and though yachting his- 
tory would have been vastly different, the fact 
would still have remained that her superiority 
over all British yachts had been freely conceded 
before the race. 

In its technical results the race was all-impor- 
tant ; it clinched for all time and beyond all pos- 
sible cavil the superiority of the Americas model 
and sails, and it resulted in the immediate altera- 
tion of many of the leading British yachts of the 
day. For the future, it wrought a complete and 
permanent change in all theories of design in 
England and America, and in other countries, 
such as Sweden, as well. 



CHAPTER VI 

THE PROGRESS OF DESIGN IN AMERICA AND 

ENGLAND 

The subsequent history of the America is one 
of the most interesting in all yachting, but to do 
justice to it would require a volume of its own, 
and only the leading points can be mentioned 
here. The first work of the new owner was to 
reduce the spars by five feet and to add iron 
braces inside, a useless proceeding which natu- 
rally impaired her speed. Manned by an Eng- 
lish crew, she was raced through the remainder 
of 185 1 and the following year. Early in 1852 
she cruised to the Mediterranean, meeting a 
heavy gale of four days' duration between Malta 
and Gibraltar, which she rode out easily. The 
owners of other British yachts still had no desire 
to meet her in matches, but she sailed in the 
Queen's Cup race on July 22, being beaten by a 
couple of minutes by the cutters Mosquito and 
Alarm. On October 12 she won a private 
match with the Swedish schooner Sverige^ of 

69 



70 American Yachting 

280 tons, as compared with her measurement of 
208 tons by the British rules. She was then sold 
to Lord Templeton, who used her through 1853 
and then laid her up at Cowes, where she lay- 
neglected until 1859, when she was taken to 
Pitcher's yard, on the Thames, for repairs. She 
proved to be in very bad condition, and she was 
ultimately bought at a low price by the owner 
of the yard, who set about to rebuild her on 
speculation. She was practically taken apart, 
piece by piece, each being replaced; the new 
frames being of oak and elm, and the planking of 
teak and oak. In this work the builder was wise 
enough to attempt no improvements of his own, 
but to respect the work of George Steers. 

In i860 she was purchased by H. E. Decie, an 
English yachtsman, who renamed her Camilla^ 
and made a cruise to the West Indies, later on 
racing her a little in British waters. There is a 
gap in this part of her history, but in 1861 she 
crossed the ocean again to Savannah, Georgia. 
Just at the outbreak of the war she was trans- 
ferred to a Southern owner, and with one or two 
guns mounted on deck she began a new career 
as a despatch-boat and blockade-runner under the 
name of Memphis ; at the present time she has 



Design in America and England 71 

a handsome bell of silver bronze on the heel of 
her bowsprit with the inscription, ''Memphis, 
1861." 

In April, 1861, she was discovered, her masts 
and part of her port side above water, in the St. 
Johns River, Florida, by the United States gun- 
boat Ottawa, Commander Thomas H. Stevens, 
having been scuttled by auger holes in her bot- 
tom. She was raised by plugging the holes and 
pumping her out, and after being completely re- 
fitted, her sails and gear being entirely new, she 
did duty through 1 862-1 863 with the blockading 
fleet off Charleston, several important captures 
being credited to her. From 1864 she was at- 
tached to the Naval Academy at Annapolis, as 
a tender and a practice vessel for the cadets. 
Here she may be left for the time until she re- 
appears in the course of yachting history. 

The first effect of the visit of the America was 
visible in 1851 in the remodelling of the entire 
British yacht fleet ; the old apple bows were cut 
off and new fore-bodies were added, with long, 
clean, knifelike bows, sometimes carried to excess. 
As in the case of the foolish copying of Gloriana 
just forty years later, the average owner and 
builder jumped to the conclusion that the whole 



72 American Yachting 

merit of the America lay in her fine bow, and 
very few attempted to fathom the full measure 
of the designer's skill as shown in the vessel as 
a whole. In thus lengthening the bow the run 
was often completely sacrificed; masts were placed 
and raked in servile imitation of the America, 
without regard to the balance of hull and sail, 
and the spar and sail makers were kept busy with 
new rigs for old yachts, the sails being cut as flat 
as possible. 

The revolution, for it was nothing less, was 
marked by both good and bad features. There 
was much foolish and unreasonable imitation, but 
the hard lesson of the America served to arouse 
yachtsmen to the teachings of such men as John 
Scott Russell, previously ignored, and to lead to 
more thorough study of naval architecture and 
yacht designing. The result was visible a few 
years later in the production of a superior class 
of yacht, far faster than the old, and also improved 
in other ways. The heavy and clumsy rigs de- 
rived from the navy disappeared; the cutter rig 
became more common, sharing the favor of yachts- 
men with the ordinary two-masted fore-and-aft 
schooner rig; and material advances were made 
both in construction and ballasting. 



Design in America and England 72> 

Though so fruitful of results in England, the 
victory of the America had no effect whatever 
on the progress of yacht design in her native 
country. Up to 1850 the keel yacht was quite 
as popular as the centre-board in the larger classes, 
and though the latter had numerous representa- 
tives in the small-boat fleet of New York, the 
keel type was in general use about Boston. The 
superior speed of the light displacement, lightly 
built centre-board yacht over the keel boats of the 
pilot-boat type in the races which were each year 
becoming more popular, and the convenience of 
very light draft in mooring off the flats of Ho- 
boken, Communipaw, and Gowanus, appealed 
strongly to both owners and builders ; and while 
some large keel yachts were built for offshore 
work, the number of centre-board boats fit only 
for New York Bay and the Sound increased very 
rapidly. 

When in 1852 George Steers built the sloop 
Silvie for Mr. Louis A. Depau, he adopted the 
centre-board type ; the sloop Julia, built by him in 
1854, was also a centre-board boat, as was the 
sloop Rebecca, built in 1855 by William Tooker, 
a brother-in-law of Steers. 

It was about this time that the modelling and 



74 American Yachting 

building of yachts began to assume distinct im- 
portance as trades or professions and such names 
as Fish, Mallory, Loper, and Albertson first be- 
came known. " Captain Bob " Fish made for 
himself a peculiar place in history ; he was a man 
of no technical education, but a born boat sailor, 
an original thinker, and a very clever mechanic. 

Though he established 
himself in connection 
with his brother Isaac as 
a boat and yacht builder 
as early as 1845, ^^ is 
best known as a modeller 
and yacht sailing-master. 
During the fifties he had 
a boat shop at Pamrapo, 
>^ ~ on the New Jersey shore. 

The Nevv' York Cat-boat. i i r r 

where a large force of 
men for the time was kept busy in the building of 
small racing cat-boats. 

These boats had been in use for many years 
about New York, for summer sailing and racing, 
and one of their principal haunts was the west 
shore of New York Bay, from Communipaw to 
Constable's Hook, at the entrance of the Kill von 
Kull. " Bob " Fish was noted as the builder of 




Design in America and England 75 

some of the fastest, as well as for his exceptional 
skill in sailing. It was through a visit to his 
shop at Pamrapo in 1852 that the Marquis of 
Conyngham became the owner of a 16-foot boat 
which he shipped to England, naming her U7ia. 
She created as great a furor in her way as the 
America, giving the generic name " Una " to the 
class of which she was the prototype. At a com- 
paratively recent date she was still in existence 
on the estate of Lord de Ros, in Ireland. It was 
probably through her that the type and the Fish 
boats became known in France and Germany, 
where they flourished in great numbers, until of 
late years superseded by the modern small rater. 
In Germany they are still known as " Bubfish " 
boats, in recognition of the designer and builder of 
the first imported. 

One of Captain Fish's first large yachts was 
the sloop Newburg, 1845; then came the Undijie 
and Gertrude, 1852, Victoria, 1856. Later on he 
abandoned building as a regular business and 
found profitable employment as a racing skipper, 
principally in the employ of Mr. William P. Doug- 
las and the Lorillard brothers. For these keen 
yachtsmen he modelled, built, altered, and sailed 
yachts. 



76 American Yachting 

The Weehawken flats may properly claim the 
honor of being the cradle of American yachting, 
but next to them come the flats about Gowanus 
Bay, spanned by the famous " Penny Bridge " 
over Gowanus Creek, and the expanse of flats on 
the opposite shore of New York Bay, already 
mentioned. These latter began at Communipaw, 
just where the narrow mouth of the Hudson 
River widens into the Upper Bay, and they ran 
down nearly five miles to the protecting arm of 
Constable's Hook. Their outer limit — the main 
channel of the Upper Bay as marked by Robbins 
Reef and Bedloe's, now Liberty, Island — was 
from one and one-half to two miles from the 
shore, which was then farm land with scattered 
villages : Communipaw, where the Jersey City 
Yacht Club established itself in 1858, Greenville, 
Pamrapo, and Bayonne. The depth of water 
over this area varied from one to five feet at mean 
low tide, and in those days the shores were prac- 
tically in a state of nature. To-day the whole of 
Constable's Hook is covered by the smoky chim- 
neys of the Standard Oil Company and its allied 
corporations. " Black Tom," the island farther 
up, is a storage station for oil ; long docks pierce 
the water, and the shores are covered with a net- 



Design in America and England jj 

work of railroads and the big red storage tanks 
of the oil companies. 

The farmers who dwelt along these shores in 
the fifties w^ere amphibious by nature, many of 
them fishermen and oystermen. The big fami- 
lies of Ellsworths and Van Buskirks, names long 
noted in New York yachting, could within their 
own immediate circle man a big schooner with 
a crack racing crew of men who, through long 
experience with the drift nets, knew every tide 
and eddy from the Battery to Sandy Hook 
light-ship, and who, through many coasting 
voyages, knew the whole Atlantic beach from 
Norfolk to Newport. This entire community 
was devoted in one way or another to yachting. 
Here dwelt " Captain Joe " Ellsworth, the eldest 
of the family and the head of a prosperous 
business in planting, gathering, and importing 
oysters, himself a skipper of rare ability and 
with a wonderful fund of local knowledge gained 
by his experience from boyhood up in fishing 
and oystering. While his time was mainly 
given to his business, he was always ready and 
able to take charge of a yacht for a race. His 
brother, " Captain Phip " (Philip), engaged in the 
same business, was the modeller of the family, 



78 American Yachting 

possessing a marked skill in the carving of 
models, after the custom in those days, and 
producing many fast yachts. 

The Ellsworths were located at Bayonne, a 
mile below " Bob " Fish's home, and close beside 
the latter was the shop of " Pat " McGiehan, a 
noted builder of open cat-boats and jib-and-main- 
sail boats, and of some yachts of larger size. 
Other builders of less note had their shops 
along this shore, and racing was the regular 
amusement of the community. Across the bay, 
at Gowanus, " Hen " Smedley built the special 
type of centre-board sloop or jib-and-mainsail 
boat known as the " Penny Bridge boat " ; and 
here, as well as along the Staten Island shore 
and in sheltered nooks on the East and North 
rivers, were boat shops, waterside saloons fre- 
quented by boat sailors, and fleets of cat-boats, 
jib-and-mainsail boats, and small cabin yachts, 
all of the centre-board type. It was not until 
well along in the sixties that yacht clubs became 
general, but from the first a strong community 
of interest and friendly rivalry united all these 
localities. 

In New York was J. B. Van Deusen, the 
builder of many large schooners. At Nyack 



Design in America and England 79 

on the Hudson was J. E. Smith, a modeller 
and builder; at Philadelphia were the Albertson 
Brothers ; at Mystic, Connecticut, was D. O. 
Richmond ; at Noank near by were Robert 
Palmer and D. D. Mallory; at City Island 
was David Carll, his brother, Jesse Carll, being 
located across the Sound at Northport ; while at 
Rye Neck was the yard of David Kirby. 

The two most noted of the early builders 
about Boston were D. J. Lawlor and George 
Lawley. Early in the sixties John B. Herre- 
shoff, the eldest of the family, though totally 
blind, started a boat shop at Bristol, Rhode 
Island, building small and then larger yachts, 
and finally launches and steamers, as the busi- 
ness grew to the present Herreshoff Manufac- 
turing Company, of which he is now president. 

There were some men of broad methods of 
thought and inquiring mind among these, such as 
D. J. Lawlor, but, as a class, they were wedded to 
their special fads and fancies and to some one type 
of yacht. While special conditions and excep- 
tional environment sometimes produced a keel 
boat, the tendency for nearly thirty years was 
to disregard the America and the wholesome 
ideas of her designer, and to force in the larger 



8o 



American Yachting 



sizes of yacht the extreme development of the 
small centre-board type, until the end was reached 
in the fatal capsize of the mammoth schooner 
Mohawk in 1876 and the ignominious defeat 
of the crack centre-board sloops by the cutter 
Madge in 1881. 

The centre-board t3^e possesses so many ad- 
vantages for American waters that there was 




Julia, Centre-board Sloop. 
Modelled and built by George Steers, 1854 (now schooner Nirvana). 

every possible reason for its development within 
reasonable limitations. The early centre-board 
yachts built shortly after the America were excel- 
lent in type and proportions ; it would be hard to 
find a more perfect model in its way than that of 
Julia, of moderate breadth, good depth of body, 
with fair and easy lines and particularly well- 



Design in America and England 8i 

balanced ends, — a combination of speed and other 
good qualities, and, with proper ballast and sail, 
a safe boat. In the course of time, however, we 
find yachts of loo feet water-line drawing no 
more ihzn Jtclia of 72 feet water-line, and withal 
over-sparred, inadequately ballasted, and pos- 
sessed of radical defects of form that made them 
unfit for all waters other than Long Island Sound 
and New York Bay, and unsafe even there at all 
times. Only two years ago one of these yachts, 
originally the Haswell, built in 1858, though 
modernized and considered perfectly safe, cap- 
sized in a squall on the Sound and drowned 
her owner, his two daughters, and her skipper. 
Throughout the fifties the regattas, special 
races, and private matches of the New York 
Yacht Club kept the sport alive; in 1857 the 
Brooklyn Yacht Club came into existence as 
the natural result of the close association of a 
number of Brooklyn yachtsmen who anchored 
their yachts in Gowanus Bay ; in the following 
year the Jersey City Yacht Club was formed in 
the same way across the bay; in 1867 the Colum- 
bia Yacht Club was formed about the foot of 
Christopher Street, on the Hudson River; and in 
1868 the South Boston Yacht Club was organized. 



82 



American Yachting 



Following the example of the America, the 
sloop Silvie, owned by Mr. Louis A. Depau, 
crossed the Atlantic, the first centre-board sloop 
to make the passage. She sailed in some races, 
but was not very successful. On August 3, 
1855, the New York Yacht Club sailed its first 
race off Glen Cove, Long Island, at the opening 
of the annual cruise, the starters including five 
schooners and fourteen sloops. The first race of 
the club at New Bedford, also on the occasion 
of the cruise, was sailed in the following year, 
and in June, 1858, the first race around Long 
Island was sailed. The start was off the club- 
house at Weehawken, thence through the Nar- 
rows to sea, around Montauk Point and through 
the Sound, finishing at Fort Schuyler. The 
contestants were : — 



Yacht 


Owner 


Tons 


Schooners : 






Haze .... 


W. W. McVicker . 


87.23 


Silvie .... 


W. A. Stebbins 


105.04 


Favorite 


A. C. Kingsland . . 


138.00 


Widgeon . 


William Edgar 


101.09 


Sloops : 






Rebecca 


James Gordon Bennett, Jr. 


77.06 


Madgie 


R. F. Loper . 


99.05 


Una .... 


W. Butler Duncan . 


67.05 


Minnie 


S. W. Thomas 


59.14 



Design in America and England 83 

Rebecca was disqualified on protest for passing 
through Plum Gut; the schooner prize went to 
Silvie, and the sloop prize to Minnie. Silvie, 
by the way, on her return voyage from England 
in 1855 was dismasted and later was converted 
to a schooner. 

In the following year, when on the cruise, Mr. 
Bennett matched Rebecca for $500 a side against 
the schooner Restless, the course being from off 
Brenton's Reef Light, outside Newport, to 
Throgg's Neck at the head of Long Island 
Sound, a distance of nearly 160 miles; with a 
strong southwest wind the schooner, being the 
larger by 18 tons, won by twelve minutes. A 
second match was sailed two days later between 
the schooners Favorite and Haze, off New Lon- 
don, and on reaching Newport the whole fleet 
sailed in a special race from off Fort Adams 
around a mark-boat 16 miles outside the Bren- 
ton's Reef Light. In addition to the usual fall 
regatta in September, a match was sailed on Octo- 
ber 6 between the schooners Favorite, Gypsy, and 
Zinga, the course being on the Sound, from off 
Hart's Island, around the Eaton's Neck buoy. 
In i860, on August 2, the s\ooy>s> Julia and Rebecca 
sailed a match for $250 a side, the course being 



84 American Yachting 

20 miles to windward and return from the Sandy 
Hook light-ship, the first over this course. By 
special agreement the two housed their topmasts 
and sailed under mainsail and jib only, Julia win- 
ning by thirteen minutes. 

Up to this time the racing of large yachts was 
practically limited to the New York Yacht Club, 
nearly all the large yachts of the country being 
owned in New York and enrolled in the club. 
The sport, however, was growing in popular 
favor; yachts of all sizes were in general use 
about Boston; and the use of small cruising 
yachts as well as the popular cat-boat was in- 
creasing all along the northern portion of the 
Atlantic seaboard. 



w 






CO 



n 


=r 


n 


r» 


H 




cr 


CJ 




o 




CD 


— 


P 


_"" 


3 


- 


/D 




P 




() 




CHAPTER VII 

THE DAY OF THE GREAT SCHOONERS 

On the outbreak of the War of the Rebellion 
the course of yachting was interrupted, the New 
York Yacht Club abandoned its annual regatta 
for the year (1861), and though its fleet con- 
tinued the regular racing in the following and 
succeeding years, the young sport felt the influ- 
ence of the war. When peace came at last in 
1865 it opened a new era of national life in 
which money was more plentiful and sport of 
all kinds more popular than in the early days 
of the republic. The foundations of many large 
fortunes had been laid during the war, and the 
reaction from its suspense and depression led 
men to seek new pleasures. Yachting came in 
for its share of the general prosperity, and while 
all classes felt the influence of the change, it 
was most evident in the largest. 

The first year of peace, 1865, was marked by 
the launch of some imposing schooners. Fleet- 
wing, 206 tons, and Fleur de Lis, 92 tons, both 

87 



88 



American Yachting 



keel, modelled by J. B. Van Deusen, with the 
centre-board Phantom, 140 tons, by the same 
modeller; Palmer, 194 tons, and Josephine, 143 
tons, both centre-board, designed by R. F. Loper ; 

Idler, 133 tons, centre- 
board, designed by Sam- 
uel Pook; Eva, j^j tons, 
modelled by Robert 
Fish ; and Juniata, 82 
tons, by Albertson 
Brothers, both centre- 
board boats. The follow- 
ing year witnessed the 
launching of Vesta, 201 
tons, modelled and built 
by David Carll for Pierre 
Lorillard, Jr., a centre- 
board vessel ; L'Hiron- 
delle, 262 tons, keel, afterward the famous Daunt- 
less, by Van Deusen; and Halcyon, 130 tons, 
centre-board, modelled and built by J. J. Harris 
at Port Jefferson. 

In 1867 the big keel schooner Sappho, 310 
tons, modelled and built by Poillon Brothers, was 
added to the fleet, and in 1868 was launched the 
centre-board schooner Madelijie, 151 tons, mod- 




Sappho. 



The Day of tbe Great Scbooiiers 89 

elled and built by James E. Smith at Nyack. 
With the keel schooners Henrietta, 205 tons, 
built by Henry Steers, nephew of George, in 
1 86 1, and Alarm, 240 tons, by Van Deusen, 1864 ; 
Maria, 231 tons, now owned by E. A. Stevens 
and altered to a schooner in 1865; and Silvie, 
Jtilia, and other old sloops converted to the 
popular rig, the New York Yacht Club could 
boast of a fleet unequalled even in the home of 
yachting, the English Channel. 

The owners of these new yachts were of a dif- 
ferent class from the Stevens family and the origi- 
nal founders of the club, but they were equally 
good sportsmen, and they laid high stakes and 
sailed hard races. After some interesting re- 
gattas and private matches about New York in 
the regular yachting seasons of 1 865-1 866, they 
found that the Sound and the little corner of the 
Atlantic between Cape May and Montauk Point, 
rough as it is at times, was far too small for them. 

There was some good racing in the latter 
year, but it failed to satisfy the owners of Vesta 
and Fleetwing, and just at the beginning of 
winter a match was made between them, the 
terms of which are best told by the exact words 
of the agreement : — 



90 American Yachting 

George and Franklin Osgood bet Pierre Lorillard, 
Jr., and others ^30,000 that the Fleetwmg can beat 
the Vesta to the Needles, on the coast of England, 
yachts to start from Sandy Hook on the second Tues- 
day in December, 1866, to sail according to the rules of 
the New York Yacht Club, waiving allowance of time. 
The sails to be carried are mainsail, foresail, jib, flying 
jib, jib-topsail, fore and main gaff topsails, storm stay- 
sail and trysail. 

No sooner was this bold venture known than a 
third party, James Gordon Bennett, Jr., requested 
to be admitted to the match, and the following 
was added to the agreement: — 

The yacht Henrietta enters the above race, by paying 
^30,000 subscription by members of the New York 
Yacht Club ; any minor points not embraced in the 
above, that cannot be settled by Messrs. Osgood, 
Lorillard, and Bennett, shall be decided as follows : 
Each shall choose an umpire; the umpires chosen in 
case of a disagreement to choose two others. Twenty 
per cent of the money to be deposited with Mr. Leonard 
W. Jerome, on the 3d of November, the balance to be 
deposited on the first Tuesday in December — play or 
pay. 



Signed by 



December 5, 1866. 



J. G. Bennett, Jr. 
Franklin Osgood. 
George A. Osgood. 
Pierre Lorillard, Jr. 



The Day of the Great Scboaners 91 

In the matter of detail it was agreed that the 
yachts should be started, blow high or blow 
low, on Thursday, December 11, at i p.m., by 
H. S. Fearing, one of the owners of the schooner 
Ravibler ; and the finish time was to be taken 
on each yacht, when, on the true Channel course, 
the light on the west end of the Isle of Wight 
bore abeam. None of the yachts was to carry a 
Channel pilot from this side ; each was allowed 
to carry a squaresail in addition to those already 
enumerated; everything but ballast might be 
shifted, and the forty-eight-hour rule was waived, 
allowing each to alter her ballast and trim up to 
the time of starting. 

On a cool, clear winter morning, with a fresh 
westerly wind, the three got under way from 
Staten Island, accompanied by the club steamer 
and a fleet of steamers, yachts, tugs, and pilot- 
boats, and stood down through the Narrows. 
They were started promptly at i o'clock, the 
fleet accompanying them for some miles on their 
way. About 8 o'clock that night they were 
separated, only meeting again after the finish. 
The winter voyage was an exciting one on each 
yacht, but only one disaster attended it ; on 
December 19, at 9 p.m., in a rising gale, with a 



92 American Yachting 

heavy sea running, Fleetwing was boarded by a 
sea over the quarter, and the watch on deck, 
eight men, were washed out of the cockpit, six of 
them being lost. The yacht broached to, losing 
her jib-boom, and she lay hove to for five hours 
before resuming her course. 

On Christmas Eve, at 6:55 p.m., the Scilly 
Lights were sighted by Vesta, and just fifty min- 
utes later they were picked up by Henrietta, 
Sailing the whole course without a tack, the 
latter was but eleven miles out from the 
straight line from start to finish ; she passed 
the Lizard at 3 a.m. on Christmas morning, 
picked up a Cowes pilot at noon, and at 3 : 45 p.m. 
the two judges on board timed her as she 
passed the Needles; a few hours later and she 
dropped her anchor in Cowes Roads, amid a 
welcome well worthy of her great achievement. 
Vesta was less fortunate, her landfall bringing 
her a few miles to leeward of Henrietta at the 
Scilly Islands ; and when she finally picked up 
a pilot late on Christmas evening, he went 
astray in a light fog, so that she did not finish 
until forty minutes after midnight. Fleetwing 
made a better course up Channel, and finished 
at midnight. The brief record of the race is 
as follows: — 



The Day of the Great Schooners 93 





Time 


Distance 




Days 


Hours 


Minutes 


Nautical Miles 


Henrietta . 
Fleetwing . 
Vesta 


13 

14 
14 


21 
6 
6 


55 
10 

50 


3106 

3135 
3144 



Mr. Bennett sailed on board Henrietta, with 
two fellow-members of the New York Yacht 
Club as judges ; on board Fleetwing two judges, 
one being Robert Center, and her builder, 
J. B. Van Deusen ; on board Vesta were two 
judges. Each yacht carried four officers and a 
crew of twenty-two men. 

The pluck and spirit of American yachtsmen, 
in sailing such a race in winter for high stakes, 
and the quality of American yachts, were gener- 
ously recognized in England, and every hospi- 
tality was tendered to the visitors. The return 
voyage was made in the following summer, the 
three sailing separately and with no attempt at 
racing. 

There was now a demand for larger and 
larger schooners, and in 1867 Poillon Brothers, 
shipwrights, of Brooklyn, launched a very large 
schooner, modelled by themselves and built upon 
speculation. Sappho, as she was named, was a 



94 American Yachting 

keel yacht with very fine Hnes, her dimensions 
being, length over all, 134 feet; length on 
water-line, 120 feet; breadth, 24 feet 9 inches; 
depth of hold, 9 feet 6 inches; draft 12 feet 
8 inches. Her tonnage was 274.40. She sailed 
several races and proved unsuccessful, nor did 
she find a purchaser; so in the following season 
she was sent to England, making the voyage 
from New York to Cowes in fourteen days. She 
entered a sweepstakes race around the Isle of 
Wight with the two big cutters Condor and 
Oimara and the schooners Aline and Cambria, 
and, though much the largest, was badly beaten. 
As there was no offer for her, she returned to 
New York, where she was finally purchased by 
that good yachtsman William P. Douglas, one 
of the patrons of Captain " Bob " Fish. 

The yacht was placed in Captain Fish's hands 
for alteration. He docked her, stripped the plank- 
ing from about the bilge, and *' padded " the 
frames to the extent of about seven inches on 
each bilge, and then replaced the planking. The 
increase of breadth added greatly to the stability 
of the yacht, and it is probable that she was 
further improved by re-ballasting and other 
alterations. At any rate her new owner had suffi- 



The Day of fbe Great Schooners 95 

cient confidence in her and Captain Fish to start 
them both for Cowes, on racing bent. This 
time, with a strong breeze on the quarter, and 
smooth water all the way, she made a record 
run, 12 days, 9 hours, 36 minutes from Sandy 
Hook light-ship to Queenstown, 2875 miles; 




Sappho. 
After alteration by Captain Robert Fish. 

her best day's run of 315 miles averaging 13.10 
knots. 

Mr. Douglas arranged a match with Mr. James 
Ashbury, the owner of the schooner Cambria, 
which had beaten Sappho so badly in the previous 
year, the stakes being a 50-guinea cup, three 
races to be sailed, of which two were to be sixty 
miles to windward and one a triangle of twenty 
miles to the side. Though Sappho was the larger 
vessel, no allowance for tonnage was asked by Mr. 
Ashbury, who evidently underrated her from 
previous experience. In the first race to wind- 



96 



American Yachting 



ward, May lo, 1869, Cambria withdrew after 
forty miles were sailed, being hopelessly astern. 
In the second race, on May 14, the course was 




Cambria. 
The first Cup challenger, 1870. 



laid by the judges from the Nab Light to Cher- 
bourg Breakwater, sixty-six miles southwest ; the 
wind being west-southwest, Mr. Ashbury refused 
to accept the course as a windward one. The 



The Day of the Great Schooners 97 

judges ordered the yachts to start in spite of this 
protest, and Sappho sailed over the course alone. 
The third race, on May 1 7, over the triangle, was 
a complete victory for Sappho, she being nearly 
two hours ahead at the second mark. 

After disposing of Henrietta, Mr. Bennett pur- 
chased the schooner V Hirondelle and renamed 
her Dauntless, and this same season he crossed to 
Cowes with her, making nearly as good a passage 
as Sappho ; but he was by no means so successful 
in the racing. In the following year, 1870, he 
made a match with Mr. Ashbury for a ^250 cup, 
from Gaunt Head, Ireland, to Sandy Hook Light. 
The start was made on July 4, and Cambria 
passed the Sandy Hook light-ship on July 
27, at 3:30 P.M., just I hour and 17 minutes 
ahead of Dauntless, The main object of Cam- 
bria! s visit was to challenge for the Royal Yacht 
Squadron Cup won by the America in 185 1, — a 
matter important enough to demand a chapter of 
its own ; for the present it is desirable to follow 
to its end the history of the schooner fleet as a 
whole. 

The race for the cup was sailed on August 8, 
1870, Cambria being defeated; but instead of end- 
ing the yachting season, as is now the case, this 

H 



98 American Yachting 

race was but the beginning. The annual cruise 
followed, Cambria accompanying the fleet. There 
was a squadron race from New London to New- 
port, won by Tidal Wave ; a race off Newport for 
two cups presented by Mr. Ashbury, for schooners 
and sloops, and a second schooner prize presented 
by members of the New York Yacht Club, Magic 
winning the Ashbury cup and Cambria the club 
cup as second prize. The next day Cambria and 
Palmer sailed a private match, the latter, handled 
for the time by " Dick " Brown, winning. A day 
later Cambria sailed another match with Idler, 
and won. 

After continuing the cruise to New Bedford 
and Martha's Vineyard, the fleet returned to New- 
port and racing was resumed. On September 8 
a race was sailed for a cup given by Commo- 
dore Bennett, since known as the Brenton's Reef 
Cup, Palmer winning it and Cambria taking the 
sweepstakes cup arranged as second prize ; the 
other starters were Sappho, Vesta, Idler, Tidal 
Wave, Madgie, Halcyon, Madeline, and Phantom. 
On September 9 a match was sailed between 
Phantom, Madeline, and Cambria for a 50-guinea 
cup, the stranger being badly beaten and 
Palmer winning the cup. On September 1 1 



The Day of the Great Schooners 99 

an open race was sailed for a $500 cup given by 
the citizens of Newport, with a second prize ; the 
first being won by Phantom and the second by 
Palmer out of a fleet of eleven, Cambria being 
fourth. 

After the fleet returned to New York further 
races were in order. On September 28, a race was 
sailed for cups given by Vice Commodore Doug- 
las, Mr. Ashbury, and Mr. Rutherford Stuyvesant, 
owner of Palmer, these being w^on by Dau7itless, 
Tidal Wave, and Madeline. On October 13 a 
match was sailed between Sappho and Cambria, 
the former winning; and on the following day, in 
another match. Dauntless beat Cambria. The 
season ended with a match between Sappho and 
Dauntless, the former winning. 

Not discouraged with his defeat, Mr. Ashbury 
challenged again, and in 1871 brought over a 
new schooner, Livonia, and was again defeated. 
Schooner racing was now one of the most popular 
sports of the day, interesting not only yachtsmen 
like Bennett, Douglas, and Stuyvesant, who sailed 
aboard their yachts, but many wealthy men who, 
caring little for yachting, envied the reputation of 
successful yachtsmen. The regattas of the New 
York Yacht Club and of the younger clubs now 

.LoFa 



loo American Yachting 

coming into prominence brought out large fleets 
of fine schooners as well as many sloops. The 
schooner racing was the principal feature of the 
annual cruise. Valuable cups were given for 
special events, and private matches were sailed. 
The Brenton's Reef cups, the Cape May cup, and 
the New York Yacht Club Course cups for 
schooners and single-stickers, all given by James 
Gordon Bennett when he was commodore in 187 1- 
1872, are memorials of this era, which is further 
marked by such names, in addition to those already 
mentioned, as Wanderer, Dreadnought, Columbia, 
Tarolinta, Comet, and Resolute, 

The history of this period of rapid development 
and keen racing presents much of interest, but 
space permits only a brief review of its salient 
points. The keel type figured prominently 
through such big yachts as Sappho, Dauntless, 
Dreadnought, and Resolute ; but the whole tend- 
ency of the time, in small and large classes alike, 
was toward the extreme development of the 
smooth-water skimming-dish, of great breadth and 
limited draft. The example of the America was 
ignored and the vicious type of which Maria was 
the first embodiment was carried to its last limit. 

The Tidal Wave, one of the noted boats of 



The Day of the Great Schooners loi 



the day, was described more pointedly than 
politely as " the snake with a frog in its belly," 
her length on water-line being loo feet, breadth 
25 feet, coupled with a very long, sharp bow, 
and her draft 
but 8 feet 4 
inches. The 
climax, both in 
dime nsions 
and model, was 
reached in 
Mo hawk, a 
centre - board 
schooner mod- 
elled and built 

by Van Deu- 
sen for Will- 
iam T. Garner, 
then commo- 
dore of the New York Yacht Club, in 1875. 

This yacht was 140 feet over all, 121 feet on 
the water-line, 30 feet 4 inches in breadth ; and 
with a depth of hold of but 9 feet 4 inches, she 
drew only 6 feet with her big centre-board housed. 
Her sail area was in proportion to her exag- 
gerated dimensions, the distance from the fore 




Livonia. 
The second challenger, 1871. 



I02 



American /achting 



end of the flying jib-boom to the end of the main 
boom being 235 feet, while the tip of her main- 
topsail-yard was 163 feet above the water. Her 
ballast was entirely inside the hull (lead blocks 
stowed on the frames) and she was most luxu- 
riously fitted and furnished. Possessed of great 

initial stability 
through her ex- 
treme breadth and 
hard form, she 
was noted for 
carrying sail ; but 
so little attention 
was paid at that 
time to the prin- 
ciples of naval 
architecture that 
very few realized that she was as liable to a sud- 
den capsize as the ordinary sand-bag racing boat 
with ballast to windward. 

The end came on an afternoon in July, 1876, 
when the yacht lay at anchor off the club station 
at Stapleton, Staten Island, with all sails set and 
sheets made fast. Commodore and Mrs. Garner 
with several friends were on board, the captain 
was on deck, and the yacht was about to get 




Mohawk. 



The Day of the Great Schooners 103 

under way. Before her anchor was hove short a 
sudden gust of wind from over the high hills of 
the island struck her and heeled her down on her 
beam ends ; before she could recover herself the 
ballast slid to leeward, while the heavy chairs 
and other cabin furniture followed, holding down 
Commodore Garner, Mrs. Garner, and two guests 
who were below at the time. The yacht then 
sank, carrying with her half a dozen persons. 
She was at once towed to the Jersey flats, off 
Bayonne, and cleared of water on the next ebb 
tide, the bodies being removed. Later on she 
was sold by the Garner estate to the United 
States government, and, after being converted to 
a keel boat and her rig reduced, she was devoted 
to the Coast Survey service, being still in 
existence under the name of Eagre. 

Many other causes were at this time operating 
against the continuance of the large schooner. 
Some of the keenest patrons of the class had lost 
part of their enthusiasm, the turf and polo claim- 
ing their attention, and the sloop rig was becoming 
more common in the medium size of cabin yacht. 

The Mohawk disaster had a powerful effect in 
stopping the building of large schooners, and, 
though its true causes were not then understood. 



I04 American Yachting 

it opened the way for a revival that was greatly 
needed. In spite of their keen interest in the 
sport, as shown by their liberal expenditures on 
yachts and prizes, their readiness to sail at any 
and all times, and their personal participation, the 
yacht owners of the day had but little interest in 
yacht design and naval architecture, all such 
matters being left to their sailing-masters and the 
professional modellers and builders. As might 
be expected, these two classes were in a deep rut, 
making no effort to escape therefrom. The 
owner and his friends swore by some one modeller 
or builder, and this same builder worshipped 
some particular model or form of section which 
had proved successful in a certain yacht. As a 
rule the models of the larger yachts were mere 
enlargements of successful sail-boats, with all the 
faults of the latter greatly magnified. 



CHAPTER VIII 




THE FIRST MATCHES FOR THE AMERICA CUP 

The Royal 
Yacht Squadron 
Cup — which, by 
the way, is not a 
cup in shape, but 
a ewer, patterned 
after the peculiar 
style of art which 
characterized the 
early Victorian 
era — became the 
property of the 
original owners of the America, and after her 
sale and the winding up of the business of 
the syndicate it was, by common consent, com- 
mitted to the custody of Commodore Stevens. 
Until the death of Mrs. Stevens, in 1855, it 
graced the drawing-room of their city home 
on Washington Square, New York ; but with 

105 



Magic. 
First Cup defender, 1870. 



io6 American Yachting 

increasing years Commodore Stevens began to 
think of some permanent disposition of the prized 
trophy. As a result, it was finally decided to 
dedicate it as a permanent challenge cup for 
international racing, and to commit it for the 
time being to the custody of the New York 
Yacht Club as a trustee, to which end the follow- 
ing letter was written: — 

New York, July 8, 1857. 

To THE Secretary of the New York Yacht 
Club : — 

Sir: — The undersigned, members of the New York 
Yacht Club, and late owners of the schooner yacht 
America, beg leave through you to present to the Club 
the Cup won by the A7nerica at the Regatta of the 
Royal Yacht Squadron at Cowes, England, August 22, 
1851. 

This cup was offered as a prize to be sailed for by 
Yachts of all nations without regard to difference of 
tonnage, going round the Isle of Wight, the usual course 
for the Annual Regatta of the Royal Yacht Squadron, 
and was won by the America, beating eight cutters and 
seven schooner Yachts which started in the race. 

The Cup is offered to the New York Yacht Club, 
subject to the following conditions : — 

Any organized Yacht Club of any foreign country 
shall always be entitled, through any one or more of its 
members, to claim the right of sailing a match for this 



Tbe First Matches for the America Cup 107 

Cup with any yacht or other vessel of not less than 
30 or more than 300 tons, measured by the Custom 
House rule of the country to which the vessel belongs. 

The parties desiring to sail for the Cup may make 
any match with the Yacht Club in possession of the same 
that may be determined upon by mutual consent; but 
in case of disagreement as to terms, the match shall be 
sailed over the usual course for the Annual Regatta of the 
Yacht Club in possession of the Cup, and subject to the 
Rules and Sailing Regulations — the challenging party 
being bound to give six months' notice in writing, fix- 
ing the day on which they wish to start. This notice to 
embrace the length. Custom House measurement, rig, 
and name of the vessel. 

It is to be distinctly understood that the Cup is to 
be the property of the Club, and not of the members 
thereof, or owners of the vessels winning it in a match ; 
and that the condition of keeping it open to be sailed 
for by Yacht Clubs of all foreign countries, upon the 
terms above laid down, shall forever attach to it, thus 
making it a perpetual Challenge Cup for friendly com- 
petition between foreign countries. 

J. C. Stevens. 
Edwin A. Stevens. 
Hamilton Wilkes. 
J. Beekman Finley. 
George L. Schuyler. 

This plain, straightforward document, evidently 
framed by true sportsmen in a spirit of friendly 
sport, is the foundation of the most important 



io8 American Yaohtim 



^ 



racing the world has ever known ; at the same 
time there has arisen in connection with the 
trust prescribed by it strife of the bitterest kind, 
tending to thwart all the hopes of the original 
donors. 

In the light of many subsequent events it is 
important to study several features of the " Deed 
of Gift," as it is commonly called. The first 
point is that the donors very evidently look upon 
a " mutual agreement," entered into on an equal 
basis by both parties, as in the case of any pri- 
vate match, as the basis for a challenge ; the 
subsequent proviso only being resorted to after 
such attempt at agreement had failed. The 
word " match " is not clearly defined, but may be 
assumed either to be merely synonymous with 
" race," as applying to a single contest ; or, by 
broad sporting usage, to a series of several sepa- 
rate races. In the event of a disagreement, not 
otherwise, certain particulars must be given ; of 
these the " length " is not specifically described, 
but it is important to note that at that time, 1857, 
the measurement of the load water-line in racing 
trim, as now universally used, was unknown. The 
water-line did not appear on the model, it was not 
used by the modeller or builder. The current 



The First Matches for the America Cup 109 

meaning of the term " length " was a measurement 
taken " between perpendiculars," or " on keel for 
tonnage," as the phrase ran. 

The first challenger for the Cup was Mr. 
James Ashbury, a wealthy English yachtsman, 
then owner of the schooner Cambria, who opened 




Cambria. 



negotiations for a match on terms to be " deter- 
mined by mutual consent " in a letter dated in 
October, 1868, in which he suggested the selection 
of a representative American schooner to visit 
England and race there in the summer of 1869, 
afterward racing Cambria across the Atlantic ; 
the two afterward to sail three races around Long 
Island for the possession of the Cup. Nothing 
came of this proposal, which was followed next 
year by a second letter with much resulting 
correspondence, the end being that the club 
practically declined to enter into any mutual 
agreement, but offered to give Mr. Ashbury one 



no 



American Yachting 



race against the fleet of the New York Yacht 
Club, over the club course. 

Though protesting against such an interpreta- 
tion of the deed of gift, he accepted ; Cambria 
raced across the Atlantic against Dauntless, as 
already recounted, and on August 8, 1870, she 
was one of twenty-four schooners and sloops 
ranged at anchor inside the Narrows of New 
York Harbor. This fleet was even more mixed 




Magic. 

than that which faced the America at Cowes in 
185 1, including all types from the big keels, Fleet- 
wing and Dauntless, to the smaller centre-board 
boats. Magic and Silvie, Among them was the 
old America, specially refitted for this race by the 
Navy Department and manned by naval officers 
and seamen. The race finished with Magic 
eleven minutes ahead of Idler, America fourth, 
and Cambria tenth. It was a mere procession, 



The First Matches for the America Cup 1 1 1 

devoid of sporting interest or technical signifi- 
cance. 

After the racing of Cambria on the cruise 
and in private matches already described, Mr. 
Ashbury returned home and began negotiations 
for another match next year, for which he pro- 
posed to build a new schooner. In the course of 
a correspondence lasting through the winter, he 




Livonia. 



combated the position of the New York Yacht 
Club, in point of fact, that it would make no 
mutual agreement but would compel a challenger 
to accept the minimum rights guaranteed by the 
deed of gift, finally winning three important 
points : that the match should consist of a series 
of races instead of a single contest ; that some of 
these should be sailed on fair neutral courses as 
far as possible ; and that he should be compelled 
to meet but one yacht in each race. In order to 



112 American Yachting 

minimize the advantage of this last point, how- 
ever, the defending club insisted on selecting four 
yachts, representing the light and heavy weather 
types, one of which it would name on the morn- 
ing of the race, according to the weather. As 
Livonia, though specially built for the contest, 
was of the sturdy sea-going British type fitted for 
the Atlantic voyage without a steam convoy, this 
reservation robbed the contest of all sporting 
interest, nor under the circumstances could it be 
considered a test of type. 

The four yachts named to defend the Cup were 
Sappho and Dauntless, keel, and Columbia and 
Palmer, centre-board ; the latter two noted as fast 
yachts in light weather. The first race, over the 
club course in light weather, was won by Colum- 
bia by nearly half an hour ; the second race, 
twenty miles to windward from the Sandy Hook 
light-ship and return, was sailed in a strong and 
freshening breeze, Columbia winning by nearly 
eight minutes corrected time. Livonia protested 
her for turning the outer mark in the wrong 
direction, but the protest was disallowed. Colum- 
bia was named for the next day, but she had suf- 
fered in the blow of the day before and finally 
broke her steering-gear, and after other mishaps 



The First Matches for the America Cup 1 1 3 

was beaten fifteen minutes. It sounds strange at 
this day to hear excuses made for Columbia and 




Columbia, 



her crew, both used up after three races, when 
Livonia and her party were expected to sail the 
entire series. Sappho was chosen for the fourth, 



114 American Yachting 

which proved the best race of the series, twenty 
miles to windward and return, in a breeze that 
caused her to stow her topsails, she winning 
by half an hour. Sappho was again chosen for the 
next race, which proved to be the last, winning 
by nearly half an hour. 

The result of this match was a bitter contro- 
versy between Mr. Ashbury and the New York 
Yacht Club, in which neither side showed to ad- 
vantage. In behalf of the challenger it may be 
said that in neither match was he given ordinary 
fair play. Much was said about the terms of the 
first race being identical with those under which 
the America won the Cup ; but they were not. 
In the first place, the America sailed on perfectly 
even terms with her competitors, each racing for 
the possession of a prize. In the case of Cambria 
and the fleet, while she was racing for the posses- 
sion of a prize, the other seventeen were racing, 
not to possess the prize, but to keep her from 
winning it. As to the actual circumstances of 
the race, while the America was soon able to work 
clear of her competitors in the open water near 
the Nab, Cambria was, by bad luck, the leeward 
boat, buffeted and blanketed by the w^hole fleet in 
the narrow channels of the Lower Bay and the 



Tbe First Matches for the America Cup 1 1 5 

Narrows. One yacht actually fouled her by fail- 
ing to give way while on the port tack, but no 
protest was made. 

The only results of these two matches were to 
arouse international ill-feeling and to confirm 
American builders in their faith in the extreme 
centre-board type. The failure of Mr. Ashbury 
in two attempts awakened no general interest in 
England, and the Cup was left without further 
challenge. While the majority of American 
yachtsmen indorsed the action of the New York 
Yacht Club, first in matching a single yacht by a 
fleet, and then in picking a defender according to 
the weather, the long discussion which ensued 
served a good purpose in preparing the way for 
that mutual agreement on fair and equal terms 
which was first accorded to Lord Dunraven in 
1893. 

The third challenge came from a new quarter, 
the yacht being the schooner Countess of Duf- 
ferin, modelled and built by Alexander Cuthbert, 
of Cobourg, Ontario, on Lake Ontario. She was 
owned by a syndicate of members of the Royal 
Canadian Yacht Club of Toronto, headed by 
Major Charles Gifford, Vice-Commodore of the 
club. Cuthbert was one of the " rule-o '-thumb " 



ii6 American Yachting 

builders, — a very clever man in his way, and well 
known on the Lakes from his local yachts. He 
followed the popular American type of shoal 
centre-board, the belief being quite general in 
certain quarters that he had merely copied a 
New York yacht in use on Lake Ontario. This, 
however, is unjust to Cuthbert, whose ideas, 
though in no way above those of his contempo- 
raries, were at least his own. 

The first negotiations between challenger and 
defender resulted in an agreement to sail a series 
of two out of three races, one only over the club 
course, the challenger to be met by but one 
yacht at a time. Major Gifford, with the fate 
of Mr. Ashbury in mind, pushed the matter 
further, and finally by a vote of eleven to five 
the defending club decided to name one yacht in 
advance for the match. This of itself was a great 
step toward equalizing the conditions, as the 
challenger, thousands of miles from home, was 
compelled to rely on one hull, one rig, and a 
single crew, while the defender in the past could 
substitute a new yacht for a disabled one or a 
fresh crew for a tired one. 

The yacht selected was the schooner Madeline, 
owned by John S. Dickerson, originally built as 



The First Matches for the America Cup 1 1 7 

a sloop by David Kirby, in 1868, but, as then 
generally the case, repeatedly enlarged, altered, 
and finally rerigged. The difference between 
the two in point of model was comparatively un- 
important, but while Madeline was fitted in per- 
fect trim from her polished copper bottom to her 
light club topsail. Countess of Dufferin suffered 
in finish and equipment from the limited capital 
of the syndicate. In the first race she was beaten 
by eleven minutes over the club course, and in 
the second, outside the Hook, she was beaten by 
nearly half an hour. 

Four years elapsed before the next challenge, 
which was also from Canada, the yacht, Atalanta, 
being modelled and built by Captain Cuthbert for 
a syndicate of the Bay of Quinte Yacht Club. 
The same agreement was made as in the previous 
match, — a series of two out of three races, one over 
the inside course, against a single yacht named 
in advance by the defending club. While 
Countess of Dtifferi7i had sailed from Lake 
Ontario to New York by way of the St. Law- 
rence and the sea, Atalanta w^as greatly delayed 
in completion. There being again a lack of the 
necessary funds, she was not launched until early 
in September, and it was determined to take her 



ii8 American Yachting 

to New York by way of the Erie Canal and Hud- 
son River. This was done with some difficulty ; 
the yacht, stripped of her spars, being heeled as 
far as possible on one bilge, to permit her passage 
through the locks. She reached New York on 
October 30, in a most unfit condition for racing, — 
a new boat, not yet finished and never fully tried. 
When docked, her bottom was as rough as a board 
fence, the time being too short to permit of that 
painting, rubbing down, and repainting which is 
necessary to put a new yacht in racing shape. 

This year the selection of a defender was made 
by means of a series of trial races, which will be 
described in a more appropriate place, the choice 
falling upon Mischiefs a new iron sloop. In model 
Atalanta was quite up to the average sloop of 
her day, but Mischief represented a distinct ad- 
vance on the older boats, in model, rig, and above 
all in construction and ballasting, her lead being 
stowed against her iron bottom plating. In one 
point alone she was minutes faster than her oppo- 
nent. After all the preliminary preparation for the 
trial races she was docked again, and her smooth 
bottom was scraped, painted, varnished, and pot- 
leaded until it shone like a well-polished boot. 

The first race was sailed on November 9, an 



Tbe First Matches for the America Cup 1 1 9 

unusually late date, Mischief winning by nearly 
half an hour; on the following day they sailed 
sixteen miles to leeward from Buoy No. 5 off 
Sandy Hook and return, Mischief winning by 
over half an hour. The match was fruitless ex- 
cept to point the old lesson, that perfection in 
detail is of more importance than any ordinary 
difference of model. 

One very important result followed, however, 
as shortly after the match the New York Yacht 
Club voted to return the America Cup to Mr. 
George L. Schuyler, the sole survivor of the origi- 
nal five donors, who was to redonate it upon new 
terms. These, as set forth in the /'Second Deed 
of Gift," were as follows : — 

Second Deed of Gift 

Any organized yacht club of a foreign country, 
incorporated, patented or licensed by the Legislature, 
admiralty or other executive department, having for its 
annual regatta an ocean water course on the sea or on 
an arm of the sea (or one which combines both), prac- 
ticable for vessels of 300 tons, shall always be entitled, 
through one or more of its members, to the right of 
sailing a match for this Cup, with a yacht or other ves- 
sel propelled by sails only, and constructed in the coun- 
try to which the challenging club belongs, against any 



I20 American Yachting 

one yacht or vessel as aforesaid, constructed in the 
country of the club holding the Cup. 

The yacht or vessel to be of not less than 30 nor 
more than 300 tons, measured by the Custom House 
rule in use by the country of the challenging party. 

The challenging party shall give six months' notice 
in writing, naming the day for the proposed race, which 
day shall not be later than seven months from the date 
of the notice. 

The parties intending to sail for the Cup may, by 
mutual consent, make any arrangement satisfactory to 
both as to the date, course, time allowance, number of 
trials, rules, and sailing regulations, and any and all 
other conditions of the match, in which case the six 
months' notice may be waived. 

In case the parties cannot mutually agree upon the 
terms of the match, then the challenging party shall 
have the right to contest for the Cup in one trial, sailed 
over the usual course of the annual regatta of the club 
holding the Cup, subject to its rules and sailing regula- 
tions, the challenged party not being required to name 
its representative until the time agreed upon for the 
start. 

Accompanying the six months' notice, there must be 
a Custom House certificate of the measurement, and a 
statement of the dimensions, rig, and name of the vessel. 

No vessel which has been defeated in a match for 
this Cup can be again selected by any club for its rep- 
resentative until after the contest for it by some other 
vessel has intervened, or until after the expiration of 
two years from the time such contest has taken place. 

Vessels intending to compete for this Cup must pro- 



The First Matches for the America Cap 1 2 1 

ceed under sail on their own bottoms to the port where 
the contest is to take place. 

Should the club holding the Cup be for any cause 
dissolved, the Cup shall be handed over to any club of 
the same nationality it may select, which comes under 
the foregoing rules. 

It is to be distinctly understood that the Cup is to 
be the property of the club and not of the owners of 
the vessel winning it in a match, and that the condition 
of keeping it open to be sailed for by organized yacht 
clubs of all foreign countries, upon the terms above laid 
down, shall forever attach to it, thus making it perpetu- 
ally a challenge Cup for friendly competition between 
foreign countries. 

George L. Schuyler. 

The most important point about this new deed, 
as compared with the first, is that a great change 
of form was made to strengthen and justify the 
position of the New York Yacht Club against a 
mutual agreement as the first basis of negotiation 
for a match. The prominent feature of the origi- 
nal " Deed of Gift " is the position of the " mutual 
agreement " clause, immediately following the first 
statement of the qualifications which make a club 
eligible as a challenger, and the general limits of 
size of the vessels. It would seem from the whole 
form and tenor of the first deed, that the donors 
contemplated a mutual agreement as the natural 



122 American Yacht ing 

and proper basis of a match, the minimum terms 
being inserted only as a last resort after a failure 
to agree. In the second deed, however, the initia- 
tive for a challenge must come, not in the form 
of overtures for a mutual agreement, but in a 
formal notice naming the day between six and 
seven months distant, and giving the particulars 
of the challenging vessel. After this, there may 
be a mutual agreement on the minor details of 
the races. The result of this change was to place 
the challenger, after his challenge had been ac- 
cepted, in the position of requesting as favors 
what should have been his by right of fair sport. 

The six months' notice, which was merely one 
of the ultimate conditions in the first deed, is here 
advanced to a very prominent position as one of 
the first elements of a match. The subject of 
dimensions is left as vague and indefinite as the 
term " length " in the first deed. It may be con- 
strued to include all that at a later date \vere con- 
sidered the fundamental dimensions of a design ; 
on the other hand, used as it is in connection 
with custom-house measurement, it may be as- 
sumed to refer only to the measurements ordi- 
narily taken in connection with tonnage. 

Some points in the deed bear directly on the two 



The First Matches for the America Cup 123 

Canadian challenges; all Canadian yacht clubs, 
save the Royal Nova Scotia Yacht Squadron, were 
excluded, this being the only one with a course 
on the sea. All canaling was prohibited by the 
provision that the challenger must "proceed under 
sail." Taken all together, the revision in no way 
improved the original deed or tended to perpetu- 
ate the spirit which inspired it. 



CHAPTER IX 

THE DEVELOPMENT OF DESIGN IN AMERICA 

The story of American yachting is a rope of 
many strands, each made of innumerable yarns. 
The "core" is the America Cup; about it twine 
many other subjects : the New York Yacht Club, 
the growth of a national club system, the racing 
of small yachts, the improvements in model and 
construction. In following the America Cup 
through the initial period of its races we have 
passed over some very important episodes, and 
it is necessary to turn back to the early seventies. 
We have already seen how the yacht first origi- 
nated from the prevalent types of revenue cut- 
ters, fishing vessels, and pilot-boats on both sides 
of the Atlantic, and how, about 1850, the first 
primitive yachts were replaced by others having 
a distinct type of their own, the building and 
altering of these craft bringing in a distinct class 
of workmen. 

The yacht type in England was the result of sev- 
eral conditions, — the tonnage rule under which 

124 



The Development of Design in America 125 

for many years all yachts were measured for rac- 
ing as well as for price in building, the rough 
and open waters on which it was necessary to 
sail, and the conservatism of British yachtsmen 
in retaining the characteristics of the sea-going 
vessel in their pleasure craft. In this country, 
while at the outset yachtsmen were divided be- 
tween the sturdy sea-going type of keel boat 
represented by the America and the harbor-sail- 
ing centre-board skimming-dish represented by 
Maria, in course of time the latter prevailed ex- 
clusively, except in the schooner division. 

Through nearly thirty years, up to 1880, the 
keel yacht of moderate size was so rare about 
New York as to be notable as an exception to the 
universal rule of shoal-draft centre-board. The 
production of these yachts was left entirely to 
the professional builders, who cut the model and 
from it built the yacht. As a class these men 
Were good mechanics, familiar with certain classes 
of vessels, but with limited education and abso- 
lutely ignorant of the elemental laws of naval 
architecture. Some of them possessed a sense of 
form which enabled them to turn out clean and 
handsome models, many of them were fairly suc- 
cessful through shrewdness and common sense 



126 American Yachting 

rather than technical skill, while not a few were 
wedded indissolubly to private fads and original 
theories of their own, exemplified in their yachts. 
Yacht owners as a class paid little attention to 
the technical side of the sport, leaving it to the 
builders and the professional sailing-masters. 

The result of these conditions was that design 
followed a downward groove. In their efforts to 
obtain speed, builders exaggerated the extreme 
skimming-dish models ; and even in large cabin 
yachts that were nominally intended more for 
cruising than racing, the important items of sta- 
bility and seaworthiness were entirely neglected. 
The capsizing of small open boats and yachts, 
even when attended with fatal results, was too 
common to attract much notice ; and the large 
yachts came in for a full share of very narrow 
escapes, with an occasional disaster such as that 
of Mohawk, but for a long time the important 
question of stability was practically ignored by all 
classes of yachtsmen. 

It was in 1871 that the Seawanhaka Yacht 
Club was organized by some gentlemen who had 
been for years sailing open centre-board boats 
about Oyster Bay and cruising in larger craft on 
the Sound. From the outset they took up the 



Tbe Development of Design in America 127 

cause of Corinthian yachting in its broadest form, 
the personal knowledge of the technical side of 
yacht building and sailing, and in particular the 
encouragement of owners in sailing their own 
yachts. The club grew rapidly and soon attracted 
to itself such men as Robert Center, C. Smith 
Lee, John Hyslop, and W. A. W. Stewart, — all 
actively interested in the subject of design — as 
well as most of the owners of the racing yachts 
of the day. 

After crossing on board Fleetwing in the race 
of 1866, Mr. Center spent some time abroad, 
becoming thoroughly familiar with the British 
cutter and with racing as it existed at the time in 
English waters. On his return, in 1870, he 
brought from London a copy of a new work, 
" Yacht Building," by Philip R. Marett, an ama- 
teur yachtsman and designer. At that time there 
was very little to be had in the way of technical 
yachting literature, either in England or America, 
this book being the pioneer in a new field. Mr. 
Marett urged upon all yacht o^vners the absolute 
importance of possessing at least an elementary 
knowledge of design and construction, and he 
practised what he preached by making his book 
a very thorough and complete treatise on these 



128 



American Yachting 



subjects. As the basis for his work he collected 
such data as were then available in the way of 
lines and elements of well-known yachts, arrang- 
ing them in systematic order, and showing how the 
essential characteristics of yachts might be com- 
pared in the light of 
their actual perform- 
ances. The subject- 
matter of the book 
was well within the 
comprehension of any 
intelligent man, the 
writer's ideas being 
sensible and set forth 
plainly and logically. 

With this book as a 
guide, Mr. Centerdeter- 
mined upon a new yacht, planned on the most 
revolutionary principles. The vessel was to be 
of the cutter type, with no centre-board, but with 
a fixed keel under her deep body ; she was to be 
planned entirely on paper, without recourse to a 
block model ; and she was to be built of iron 
th^oughr . His associate in this work was A. 
Cary Smith, a marine artist who had begun life 
as a willing apprentice to Captain " Bob " Fish in 
the latter's boatshop at Pamrapo. 




British Racing Cutter, 
1870 to 1880. 



Tbe Development of Design in Ameriea 129 

Working together, they planned the first 
American cutter, Vindcx, following closely the 
lines of the famous Mosquito, already mentioned, 
as given by Marett. The yacht was built by 
Reaney, Son & Archbold, at Chester, Pennsyl- 
vania, being launched in 1871 ; she was 62 feet 
5 inches over all, 56 feet 4 inches on the water- 
line, 17 feet 3 inches wide, and drew 8 feet 10 
inches ; her depth of hold was 6 feet 7 inches, and 
her tonnage 54.34 tons. In comparison with her 
may be mentioned Vision, long known as one of 
the leading centre-board sloops of her class, built 
in 1872. She was 66 feet over all, 52 feet 4 inches 
on the w^ater-line, 20 feet 9 inches wide, and drew 
5 feet 9 inches, with a depth of hold of 5 feet 1 1 
inches, and a tonnage of 58.52. 

Vindex was built with iron frames and plating 
and a plate keel of iron about one inch thick, her 
ballast being lead stowed on the frames and skin ; 
but later on a part of this was cast in slabs and 
bolted to the keel, as in the modern fin-keel yacht. 
Her fittings and deck joiner work were strong 
and solid, for work at sea, in contrast to the light 
and flimsy fittings of the ordinary c^. op yaoht. 
She was rigged as a cutter, and steered with 
either a wheel or a tiller. 

K 



130 American Yachting 

The first of her kind, and the work of amateurs, 
she possessed some serious faults, but in the hands 
of her plucky Corinthian owner she first proved 
the sterling merits of her type and build by winter 
yachting at sea ; then, in the regular season, she 
shared the prizes with the light-weather boats of 
the Sound. In the end she fully justified the 
ideas of her owner, and started a reform which 
was greatly needed. It was in the sometimes 
heated controversy over her individual merits and 
demerits, which lasted for several seasons, that the 
important issues of the cutter model and rig, the 
designing of yachts by methods similar to those 
of the house architect, and iron construction, were 
introduced into yachting. 

The second American cutter was built in 1876 
at Port Richmond, Staten Island, from the designs 
of her owner, John Hyslop. Petrel, as she was 
named, was 32 feet over all, 28 feet on the water- 
line, 8 feet wide, and of 4 feet 8 inches draft. 
She was in no sense an imitation of the racing cut- 
ters of the time, but a cleverly designed application 
of the principles of the cutter to American condi- 
tions. She was built of wood, with two-thirds of 
her ballast on the keel. 

In the following year Mr. Center had built 



The Development of Design in America 



131 



from his own designs a third cutter, Volante, the 
building being done by John F. Mumm, at the foot 
of Court Street, Brooklyn. She was intended as 
a model cruising yacht for the Messrs. Hitchcook, 
young nephews of Mr. Center, and her dimen- 
sions were : length over all, 45 feet ; load water- 
line, 40 feet ; breadth, 1 2 feet ; draft, 7 feet. She 
carried a good part of her ballast in the form of 
a lead keel, and she was rigged as a cutter. Both 
of these yachts proved successful, doing regular 
work as cruisers, for which they w^ere well fitted, 
and yet winning many races. 

The discontent on the part of many yachtsmen 
with the existing conditions of design and con- 
struction found forcible expression after the cap- 
size of Mohawk, which some attempted to defend 
as a visitation of Providence which might have 
fallen on any vessel, regardless of type, while 
others looked upon it as a most inexcusable and 
unnecessary sacrifice to ignorance. A discussion 
gradually arose which in time embraced a large 
number of important points : the necessity for the 
professional yacht designer, with his plans on 
paper, in place of the builder with his block 
model ; the dangerous initial stability of the 
sloop as opposed to the wide range of stability 



132 American Yachting 

of the cutter; the merits of the two types in 
point of speed and seaworthiness ; the relative 
values of breadth and depth as exemplified in 
sloop and cutter; the merits of iron as opposed 
to wood in construction. At the outset the only 
semblance of technical discussion was made by 
a few of the better informed amateurs, but by 
degrees yachtsmen became sufficiently interested 
to seek reliable information. 

The Seawanhaka Club, which by this time had 
officially adopted the title " Corinthian " as an 
index of its principles, was most active in promot- 
ing the practical study of the different branches 
of yachting science, as well as in encouraging 
Corinthian sailing on the part of its members, 
many of its races being open only to yachts 
manned with amateur crews and steered by ama- 
teur skippers. 

Thus far few yachtsmen were bold enough to 
intrust the production of a yacht to a designer 
who would work from a plan on paper, but in 
1877 Cary Smith designed the schooner Prospero 
for G. H. B. Hill, and in the following year he 
attempted a much more important work, — the 
designing of the cruising schooner httrepid^ of 
loi feet water-line, for Lloyd Phoenix. 



Tbe Development of Design in America 



I 






The building of this yacht, of a new model and 
with many notable changes in details of hull and 
rig, was the subject of a very heated discussion 
during the winter; but, in the end, like Vindex, 
she refused to sink, as predicted by some of the 
critics, and proved herself an admirable sea-boat, 
being still in use to-day, after cruising many thou- 
sands of miles. It was during this same winter 
that Mr. Gary Smith, at the request of the Sea- 
wanhaka Corinthian Yacht Club, delivered a 
series of lectures on yacht designing which 
were generally appreciated. 

The attention of American yachtsmen was 
attracted to the British cutter then in the course 
of rapid evolution, the recent placing of all or 
nearly all the lead ballast in the keel permitting 
a reduction of breadth which gave great advan- 
tage under the rule, — the consequence being that 
each successive season witnessed the launching 
of narrower and deeper boats with greater dis- 
placement and heavier keels. A small party of 
progressive yachtsmen, known in derision as 
" cutter cranks," upheld the narrow cutter as 
far safer and a better sea-boat and also faster 
than the wide sloop ; the great majority of yachts- 
men still believed in the sloop model and rig as 



134 American Yachting 

embodying something more than perfection; 
while between these two camps were a moderate 
number who, condemning the centre-board sloop 
as she then existed, and, praising the general 
principles of the cutter, advocated what was 
called the " compromise " type, of moderate 
breadth, much greater depth and draft than 
the sloop, outside ballast, and a rig patterned 
only in part after the cutter. 

The first narrow cutter was Muriel, designed 
by John Harvey and built by Henry Piepgrass 
at Greenpoint, Long Island, in 1878, for James 
Stillman. She was 45 feet 6 inches over all, 40 
feet 6 inches on the water-line, 9 feet 2 inches in 
width, and drew 7 feet 9 inches. In the following 
year the same builder turned out a smaller cut- 
ter, Yolande, designed by her owner, M. Roosevelt 
Schuyler, the leader of the cutter advocates ; she 
was 31 feet 3 inches over all, 26 feet 9 inches on 
the water-line, 7 feet i inch in width, and drew 
5 feet 2 inches. Both Muriel and Yolande raced 
at times with varying success, but as cruisers 
they were far more successful. 

The first really important result of the agita- 
tion which virtually began with the designing of 
Vindex eight years before was the construction of 



Tbe Development of Design in America 135 



Mischief, the " compromise sloop," as she was 
called, in 1879. She was designed by Cary 
Smith for Joseph R. Busk, an Englishman resi- 
dent in New York, — in appearance and manners 
a typical Britisher, but 
in yachting a stanch 
partisan of the centre- 
board sloop. Mis- 
chief's dimensions 
Were: length over all, 
67 feet 5 inches; load 
water-line, 61 feet ; 
breadth, 19 feet 10 
inches ; draft with- 
out board, 5 feet 4 
inches. In model she 
differed widely from 
the older sloops of her 
class, her hull was built 
of iron, and her rig 
was a compromise between sloop and cutter. 

In the early days of yachting all the vessels of 
the fleet raced together as 'one class, with no dis- 
tinction of size or rig. At a later period the two 
leading rigs, schooner and sloop, were separated 
into two classes ; and in course of time the yachts 




.r-TC..3;K«VI. 



Mischief. 



136 



American Yacbtim 



of each rig were subdivided according to size. 
Toward the end of the seventies, by a process of 
natural segregation, two classes began to form 
out of the larger sloop yachts owned and raced 
about New York. The larger of these is best 
known as the 70-foot class, the smaller as the 50- 




Arrow. 



foot. In the former were Grade, Fanny, Hilde- 
garde, Vision, and Arrow; in the latter. Vixen, 
Regina, Madcap, Whitecap, and some smaller 
yachts of less note. When Mischief was built, 
she came into the 70-foot class, and about the 
same time the 50-foot class was increased by the 
Ellsworth sloop Fanita. 

Mischief soon set the pace for the older 
wooden boats, and when the challenge came from 



The Development of Design in America 137 

the Bay of Quinte Yacht Club, there was some 
very keen rivahy already existing within the 
class. Arrow, built by David Kirby, was con- 
sidered by many the fastest boat in the class ; and 
in order to make certain of an adequate defence 
of the Cup against the unknown Atalanta, the 
flag-ofificers of the club, Commodore John R. 
Waller, Vice-Commodore James D. Smith, and 
Rear-Commodore Hermann Oelrichs, formed a 
syndicate to build a new Kirby sloop. The num- 
ber of competitors for the honor of meeting the 
challenger, and the ardor of the champions of 
Grade, Arrow, Mischief, and Hildegarde, made 
the choice a difficult one, and for the first time it 
was decided to hold a series of trial races for the 
selection of the one defending yacht. 

The first of those "trial races" which have 
since been an essential element of every Cup 
match, was sailed on October 13, 1881, Mischief 
winning from Grade, Hildegarde, and Pocahontas, 
The second race was won by Grade, and the third 
by Mischief, — the " Iron Pot," as the latter was 
affectionately nicknamed by her admirers, being 
chosen to defend the Cup. As already related, 
the final races between Mischief and Atalanta 
were very hollow affairs, involving no special 



138 American Yachting 

principles ; but the trial races were really impor- 
tant events, the result demonstrating the supe- 
riority of the new ideas embodied in Mischief, 

The three important men of this interesting 
era of transition from old to new are Robert 
Center, A. Cary Smith, and John Hyslop. To 
their efforts, both individual and united, are due 
many of the reforms which have contributed to 
raise the sport to a higher plane and to advance 
the science of yachting. Robert Center was 
born in New York and joined the New York 
Yacht Club as a young man in 1862. Possessed 
of independent means, from his early youth he 
was devoted to all forms of sport, his chief pleas- 
ure being in yachting. In every sport in which 
he was interested he never stopped until he had 
mastered the technical side and was also an 
expert in actual performance. In yachting he was 
a finished draftsman, well versed in the theory of 
design, a thoroughly practical navigator, and usu- 
ally at the wheel of his yacht in person. He was 
always active in club work, filling many offices 
and serving on many committees in the New 
York and Seawanhaka clubs. He rode one of 
the first velocipedes brought to New York from 
Paris in 1867, he was one of the most enthusi- 



The Development of Design in America 139 

astic members of the New York Bicycle Club in 
the days of the old high wheel, and he again 
resumed the sport and rode regularly when the 
modern pneumatic-tired wheel came into use. 
His death was due to an accident while riding a 
wheel, a heavy wagon turning from the wrong 
side of a car and striking him down. He was a 
good friend to all young yachtsmen, and by his 
precept and example did much to induce yachts- 
men to follow him in the study of designing, 
navigation, and practical sailing. 

Archibald Gary Smith was born in New York, 
the son of a Presbyterian clergyman, and as a 
boy developed such a fondness for yachts that 
when eighteen years old he was allowed to enter 
the shop of Captain " Bob " Fish, at Pamrapo. 
Under that capable mentor he learned the art of 
modelling, as practised at that day, with some 
gouges and chisels and a block of soft wood, and 
also the construction and rigging of yachts. He 
became an expert skipper in the open racing 
yachts of the day, winning many races in yachts 
of his own design. Later in life he studied paint- 
ing and made a reputation by his marine pictures. 
An intimate personal friend of Mr. Center, he 
undertook to design Vindex for him, being the 



I40 American Yachting 

first man, so far as the records show, to discard 
the model and make a design for a yacht. By 
degrees he abandoned painting, his time being 
fully occupied in designing yachts and commer- 
cial steamers. He has served as measurer for 
both the New York and the Seawanhaka clubs, 
and he has taken a prominent part in measure- 
ment legislation and similar technical work. To 
him is due the great change in the models of the 
Sound and river steamers, the old hollow bows 
giving way to the modern round, full lines first 
used successfully in racing yachts and then 
tested by him in the Richard Peck^ the City of 
Lowell, diud the Chester W, Chapin, — all notable 
boats. 

John Hyslop began his yachting by sailing 
models in Liverpool many years ago. Early in 
the sixties he moved to New York, and through- 
out a life of business activity he has always found 
time to work for the advancement of yachting 
and at intervals to follow it as a sport. After 
sailing models for a time in this country, he built 
and owned several centre-board sloops of the com- 
mon type; but in 1876 he designed and had built 
Petrel, already described, racing her very success- 
fully for some years. Prior to this he devoted 



The Development of Design in America 141 

much time to the study of form, and about 1877 
gave to the world the result in the formulation of 
the theory of the distribution of the displacement 
according to the characteristics of the wave form, 
now universally accepted by designers. In this 
work he perfected and put to practical use for the 
first time the ingenious but incomplete theories 
of John Scott Russell. 

From his first connection with yachting, Mr. 
Hyslop took a deep interest in the allied ques- 
tions of design and measurement. He was meas- 
urer of the clubs to which he then belonged, and 
always ready to battle for better rules and 
methods. To him is due the length and sail 
area rule, first adopted by the Seawanhaka Corin- 
thian Yacht Club in 1882, and remodelled the 
following year, when it was adopted by the New 
York Yacht Club, and later became the universal 
rule in this country. To him is also due the 
rule now in use by the Larchmont and Seawan- 
haka clubs, and in a modified form by the Yacht 
Racing Association of Long Island Sound. For 
many years he measured the yachts of the New 
York, Seawanhaka, and Larchmont clubs, in- 
cluding many of the Cup competitors. 



CHAPTER X 



THE BATTLE OF THE TYPES 



The few cutters 
built during the 
seventies, Vindex^ 
Petrel^ Valiant, and 
Muriel, were insig- 
nificant in compari- 
son with the large 
number of centre- 
board yachts of all 
sizes, and they were 
in no way threaten- 
ing to the national 
type ; the designing 
of Mischief, how- 
ever, brought several 
new elements into the growing controversy, and 
the adherents of the extreme old type of wooden 
sloop and of her rule-o'-thumb builder were called 
on to defend themselves more actively. Mischief 
showed something of her quality in her first sea- 

142 




Madge. 
Typical cutter rig of 1880. 



The Battle of the Types 143 

son, 1880; but in the following summer and in 
the trial races of the fall she fully proved her 
superiority to the larger sloops of her class, 
and justified the claims of the more moderate 
reformers. 

Early in the summer of 1881 there was 
launched another yacht of Mr. Smith's design 
that represented a still more advanced step 
toward the cutter. Valkyr, built to the order 
of Dr. B. F. Dawson, of New York, may be 
classed as a compromise cutter in distinction from 
Mischief, the compromise sloop. She was much 
wider and of less depth and draft than the British 
cutter of the day, and she had a centre-board as 
well as a keel ; but in her general form she re- 
sembled the cutter. She carried a cutter rig, and 
her great depth and outside lead keel marked her 
as of a type having nothing in common with the 
centre-board sloop. She was 54 feet 6 inches 
over all, and 46 feet 6 inches on the water-line, 
thus with a plumb stem having ten feet of after 
overhang fashioned like a cutter's counter. Her 
breadth was 15 feet, depth 7 feet 3 inches, and 
draft 5 feet 3 inches. The centre-board was of 
moderate size, auxiliary to the keel. She proved 
a very stanch and able cruising boat, and even- 



144 American Yachting 

tually defeated the crack skimming-dishes of the 
50-foot class. Whatever might be urged against 
the extreme narrow cutter, Valkyr had to be 
dealt with solely on her merits, as embodying 
the essential points of the cutter adapted to 
American wants and waters. 

Later in the same year was launched a still 
more extreme type, a keel cutter with the depth 
of the English type but of greater breadth, — 
Oriva, designed by John Harvey for C. Smith 
Lee, of the Seawanhaka Corinthian Yacht Club, 
and built by Henry Piepgrass. Her dimensions 
were : length over all, 62 feet ; load water-line, 
50 feet ; breadth, 1 1 feet 8 inches ; depth, 9 feet ; 
draft, 9 feet 6 inches. With the other dimen- 
sions of the English 20-tonner of the day, she had 
about two feet more breadth, to fit her to Ameri- 
can conditions. While the rig of Valkyr was 
somewhat modified in detail from the true British 
cutter, that of Oriva was after the conventional 
pattern, even to the loose-footed mainsail and the 
chain halyards for her jib. 

To these four representatives of various types 
was soon added a fifth in the cutter Madge, the 
champion lo-tonner of her day, shipped out from 
Glasgow to New York on the Anchor Liner 



The Battle of the Types 145 

Devonia, on much the same venture as that of the 
America thirty years before. Her owner, James 
Coats, of Paisley, still a well-known personality 
in Scotch yachting, was then an active racing 
man. She was built in 1879 from the design of 
George L. Watson, then at the beginning of his 
career, and for three seasons she was most suc- 
cessful in the Scotch and English regattas. She 
was a typical narrow cutter, her dimensions 
being: length over all, 46 feet i inch; load 
water-line, 38 feet 6 inches ; breadth, 7 feet 9 
inches; depth, 6 feet 6 inches; draft, 7 feet 10 
inches. She was built of wood, but in a manner 
far superior to that of the sloops of the time ; 
she carried ten tons of lead on her keel ; and her 
great depth gave her headroom in the cabins 
under a flush deck, without the inevitable " cabin 
trunk " of even the larger American yachts. 

Crude as they look to-day, Madge s ironwork, 
spars, blocks, and fittings were years in advance 
of the current American practice. With a short 
lower mast and an excessively long topmast, the 
latter fitted to house, she had comparatively little 
canvas in her mainsail, but with the big club top- 
sail set she show^ed a lofty rig. Her bowsprit 
was so rigged as to house or run in on deck, and 



M 



146 



American Yachting 



in heavy weather she could quickly be brought 
down to snug spars and a very small but effec- 
tive spread of sail. Her decks were kept beauti- 
fully white, her topsides were a glossy black, and 
her bottom was coppered to a point well above 
the water-line, giving her a strange look to Amer- 




Madge. 

ican eyes. While many of the sloops were at 
that time manned by such hands as could be 
picked up alongshore for a race, no two dressed 
alike, the crew of Madge looked smart and trim 
in their working uniform, or knit jerseys and 
knit caps, with Mr. Coats' colors, blue and white. 
In the preceding year Mr. Coats, who had lived 
in America, imported from America a Newport 



The Battle of the Types 147 

cat-boat, the George and Annie, with a young 
Yankee skipper, and raced her on the Clyde to 
test her with the small Scotch boats. In a simi- 
lar spirit he determined to send Madge, then the 
representative boat of her type and class, to 
America, to test conclusions with the centre-board 
sloops. Being unable to make the trip with her, 
she was intrusted to his skipper, James Duncan, 
a very clever yacht sailor and a Scotchman with 
all the native shrewdness and hard sense of his 
people. The management of the yacht was in 
the hands of Captain Duncan and Mr. W. L. 
Blatch, a Scotchman residing in New York and a 
member of the New York Yacht Club. 

On her arrival at New York, on August 16, 
Madge was hoisted over the side of the Devonia 
and towed to Staten Island, making her moor- 
ings off the Seawanhaka Corinthian Yacht Club 
station at Tompkinsville. She was quickly re- 
fitted by Captain Duncan and his crew, and in a 
few days was sailing about the bay. The interest 
in yachting was very keen at this time, the com- 
ing trials of the big sloops, the match for the 
America Cup which was to follow, and the grow- 
ing controversy on technical subjects, all helping 
to enliven it. Madge was, for the moment, the 



148 American Yachting 

centre of attraction, and every yacht about New 
York was out to watch her sail. Somehow she 
seemed to sail but poorly, and a number of yachts 
passed her in the informal scrub races. Mean- 
while arrangements were made by Mr. Blatch for 
private matches with some of the fastest repre- 
sentatives of the sloop class, Schemer, Wave, and 
Mistral, while negotiations were started for a 
match at Newport with the Boston sloop, Shadow, 
In the popular mind and in the daily press the 
whole matter was settled before the first race. 
The narrow " diving-bell," as she was called, had 
no chance against the sloops which sailed on 
top of the water instead of cutting through it. 

The first race, for a $100 cup, was with 
Schemer, one of the best of her class, the course 
being from off Staten Island, out around the 
Sandy Hook light-ship and return, in a south- 
west wind, light to moderate. At the outset 
there was hardly a question as to the result 
among the many spectators, but to the surprise 
of nearly all, as soon as Madge got under way 
with her big club topsail set, she moved very 
fast, and before the Southwest Spit was passed 
she had won the race. She finally finished 5 
minutes 41 seconds in the lead. On the follow- 



The Battle of the Types 



149 



ing day, September 28, she was matched with 
Wave, another noted sloop, the weather being 
light and fluky. Madge won by 11 minutes 46 
seconds, actual time. 

The third victim was Mistral, whose owner 
had readily agreed to a match for a $250 cup at 
the time when Madge 
stock was at its lowest. 
There was more wind 
and some sea in the 
Lower Bay, and Mis- 
tral, after shaking her 
rig to pieces and partly 
filling, was glad to give 
up and go home, leav- 
ing Madge to sail 

around the light-ship Schemer, 

alone. On the fourth day, the third of the 
Seawanhaka match, there was no wind, and 
Schemer was selected in preference to Wave, She 
was first away in a very light air, and Madge 
sailed a stern chase all day, being seven minutes 
astern at the light-ship, and the same at the 
Southwest Spit. The run in from the Spit was 
before the wind, Madge dragging her heavy keel 
at a depth of eight feet, while Schemer, drawing 




I50 



American Yachting 



three feet, had her board housed. Madge made 
up two minutes in the few miles under conditions 
which were considered prohibitive for her, and 
though beaten on actual time, she won by allow- 
ance. In a private match with Schemer, set for 




Shadow. 
Lines taken from yacht by John Hyslop and W. P. Stephens. 

the following day, the latter did not come to the 
line and Madge sailed over the course. A match 
was made with Paloma, another sloop, but it was 
not sailed, and a final match with Wave also 
failed, leaving Madge the unquestioned champion 
of New York waters. After this she sailed for 
Newport, where she was matched with Shadow, 
Built in 1 87 1, and still in commission, with a 



Tbe Battle of the Types 1 5 1 

racing record covering nearly a quarter of a cen- 
tury, Shadow represents the best type of centre- 
board sloop, well proportioned and fairly deep. 
She was built by the Herreshoffs, and the model 
is claimed by them, but there is some difference 
of opinion on this point. The yacht was built 
for Dr. Sisson, of New Bedford, and, according 
to the current belief among New Bedford yachts- 
men, he was personally responsible for the model. 
It is certain that the yacht, which has many 
points of excellence and has proved wonderfully 
successful through an unusually long racing life, 
differs much from those Herreshoff models which 
immediately preceded as well as those which 
followed her, and gives no evidence of relation- 
ship. Her dimensions are : length over all, 
37 feet I inch; load water-line, 34 feet 2 inches; 
breadth, extreme, 14 feet 4 inches; breadth on 
water-line, 13 feet i inch; draft, without board, 
5 feet 4 inches. She carried five tons of ballast 
inside the skin, and the usual sloop rig. 

The first race was sailed over a leeward course 
and return, — about twelve miles each way. Off 
the wind Madge gained over a minute and a half, 
but in starting to windward she was poorly 
handled, two of her crew being green hands in 



152 



American Yacbtiiig 



cutter sailing, and one of her big spreaders was 
broken, laming her on the port tack. She was 
eventually beaten by nearly twenty-three minutes. 
On the following day they sailed over a 30-mile 
triangle, Shadow carrying one reef part of the time. 

She was out-sailed over 
the windward leg and 
the reach, but just held 
her own under spin- 
naker. Three days 
later a match was sailed 
with Wave, over a 30- 
mile triangle, Madge 
gaining five minutes 
in the ten miles to 
windward, but finally 
winning by only two 
minutes, on actual 
time. In all of these 
races Madge was allowed time in varying amounts 
according to the rules of the Seawanhaka and 
Eastern clubs ; owing to the very great varia- 
tion in type and dimensions, there was a great 
difference of opinion as to what would be a 
fair allowance between her and the sloops ; but 
as a matter of fact, though in many ways the 




Shadow. 
Typical sloop rig of 1880. 



The Battle of the Types 153 

smallest boat, she won six races out of seven on 
actual time, without calling on her allowance. 

This bare record gives but a faint idea of 
Madges superiority, which was shown in the 
mechanical details of construction, rig, and sails, 
the manner in which the yacht was kept in per- 
fect shape for racing, the skilful handling of Cap- 
tain Duncan, and the work of his crew. Apart 
from the breaking of her spreader in the race 
with Shadow, Madge sailed the series without 
injury, while Schemer, Mistral, and Wave were 
more or less in the condition of Columbia after 
her races with Livonia in 1871, — hors de combat. 

The victory of Madge proved almost beyond 
the possibility of dispute all that had been urged 
against the shoal-draft centre-board sloop and 
schooner, and left the partisans of this type for 
the time confounded. The very confidence and 
vehemence which they had displayed while Madge 
was idly sailing about with no topsail, made her 
ultimate victory a more complete rout. Shadow 
had in a measure saved the sloop cause from 
utter extinction ; but then she, in common with 
other eastern yachts, was of a far less extreme 
type than that produced by and used on the 
Sound. On the part of the "cutter cranks" 



154 



American Yachting 



the result was accepted as final proof of the 
superiority of the most extreme type of narrow 
cutter. Between these extremes, the silenced 
and confounded sloop advocates and the joyous 
and hopeful " cutter cranks," were many who 
began, in varying degree, to appreciate that. 




Grade. 

without going to extremes, there was much in 
the leading features of the cutter, in the mak- 
ing of sails, and in the perfection of British 
racing routine, that was lacking in American 
yachting. Like the America^ Madge taught a 
lesson of careful thought and earnest work in 
all branches of yachting. 



The Battle of the Types 155 

Almost coincident with the final Madge races 
at Newport came the trial races between Gracie^ 
Hildegarde, Pocahontas, and Mischief, in which 
the latter triumphed, while Pocaho7itas, the new 
boat of the year, and built to vindicate the cause 
of the shoal sloop, made an ignominious failure. 

The battle of type grew hotter and hotter 
from this time on, there being practically three 
parties participating. The largest was that which, 
after abandoning its original position, maintained 
the cause of the centre-board sloop with certain 
modifications in the form of a rather deeper 
model, some outside ballast, and improvements 
in rig. The next in size took the side of what 
may best be called the compromise cutter, of 
moderate breadth and draft, with keel or centre- 
board according to circumstances, and a modi- 
fication of the cutter rig, with laced cotton 
mainsail and fixed bowsprit. The third party 
included the original " cutter cranks " and quite 
a large following of converts in the wake of 
Madge, all upholding the English or Scotch 
cutter of the day, very narrow and deep, with 
housing bowsprit, immense club topsail, and 
loose-footed mainsail, the foot not laced to the 
boom ; all sails being of hemp. 



156 American Yachting 

During the winter two new cutters were 
started, — Bedouin, of 70 feet water-line, and 
Weiionah, of 60 feet, — both designed by John 
Harvey and built by Piepgrass, the former for 
Archibald Rogers and the latter for James Still- 
man. At the same time the 15-tonner Maggie, 
the best of her class, was purchased in England 
and shipped by steamer to Boston for George H. 
Warren of the Eastern Yacht Club. 

The season of 1883 was an exciting one, many 
races being sailed with varying results. The 
new cutters were mainly in charge of imported 
British skippers ; but their Corinthian owners 
were desirous of handling the tiller themselves 
in the races, and as they lacked experience in this 
type of boat, they were frequently beaten by the 
sloops. At the same time, however, they scored 
some important victories, the proportion regu- 
larly increasing as they became better versed in 
the handling of the new craft. 

The controversy was by no means limited to 
the yacht fleet and the yacht clubs, but soon 
made its way into business and general club 
circles, especially about New York, every chance 
meeting of yachtsmen being the occasion of a 
discussion over types and models, over Lap- 



The Battle of the Types 157 

thorne's sails as compared with those of Wilson 
or Sawyer, or the merits of some favorite builder 
or designer. Not the least amusing part of the 
dispute was that in the press, where the war 
waged fast and furious for several years. The 
leading partisans of the American type were 
Captain Cofifin and Captain McKay, both old 
reporters skilled by years of practice in journal- 
ism. The former, one of the old-time merchant 
captains in his youth, a member of the noted 
Cofifin family of Nantucket, was an expert ste- 
nographer, and for many years reported every 
Sunday the sermons of Henry Ward Beecher. 
His practical knowledge of the sea was backed 
by good judgment and a knowledge of yacht 
racing derived from long experience as a re- 
porter ; but in matters pertaining strictly to naval 
architecture and yacht designing, he lacked a 
technical education. Captain McKay was a 
member of the famous Boston family of ship- 
builders and was brought up in a shipyard, 
being well grounded in the theoretical side of 
ship-building ; later in life he commanded mer- 
chant vessels and finally became a reporter and 
writer on nautical subjects. 

The foremost exponent of the side of the 



158 American Yacbting 

" cutter cranks " was C. P. Kunhardt, an Ameri- 
can and a graduate of Annapolis, an enthusiast 
on the subject of yachting. Brilliant and well 
educated, with a better technical training in 
naval architecture than his opponents and with 
a broader technical knowledge of yacht design- 
ing and the general history of yachting abroad, 
he was a fearless fighter and the possessor of 
an almost unlimited vocabulary. At the time 
of the first inception of the cutter agitation, or 
about 1878, he took sides against the "half-tide 
rocks," the "diving-bells," and the "lead mines," 
as the British boats were then called ; but a 
little later he experienced a change of heart, 
and became the most earnest advocate of the 
extreme narrow cutter. The battle of these 
giants, beside whom all other writers were pyg- 
mies, added zest to the verbal discussions of 
yachtsmen within the clubs. While, on the one 
hand, every one of the frequent capsizes of centre- 
board yachts was exploited as evidence of the 
utter unsuitability of the type and of its inherent 
danger; on the other, such occurrences, even in 
the case of Mohawk, were laid to ignorance and 
carelessness on the part of the skipper, and not 
to the proportions and specific faults of model. 



The Battle of the Types 



159 



The fleet now included Grade, Mischief, 
Fa7iny, and Hildegarde, with the cutters Bedouin 
and Wenonah in the 70-foot class ; Vixe7i, Regina, 
Valkyr, and Oriva in the 50-foot class, with the 
imported cutter Maggie and some smaller cutters, 
added to which were various " compromise " mod- 
els. Each race 
was seized on by 
these writers and 
made to prove 
the truth of their 
arguments, pro 
or con. 

In the winter 
of 1882 - 1883 
two important 
additions were 
made to the 
schooner fleet, — 
the cruising schooner Fortuna, designed by Gary 
Smith for Henry S. Hovey, a fine example of the 
keel type ; and Grayling, modelled by Philip Ells- 
worth for Latham A. Fish of the Atlantic Yacht 
Club. Built for racing according to the prevailing 
theories of the centre-board school. Grayling, on 
a water-line of 81 feet, drew but 5 feet 9 inches, 




Fortuna. 



i6o American Yachting 

with all her ballast inside. The construction of 
such a yacht was naturally a bone of contention, 
one party claiming that she would be dangerous 
to a degree, and the other that, if not absolutely 
non-capsizable like a cutter, she could only be 
capsized by such gross carelessness as no compe- 
tent yachtsman would be guilty of. The dispute 
was brought to an abrupt termination early in 
May, when, on the occasion of her trial trip, and 
within a couple of miles of her mooring, she was 
struck by a flaw of wind and ignominiously cap- 
sized and sank, her owner, skipper, and crew 
being rescued by near-by boats. By an odd coin- 
cidence Mr. Kunhardt, who had been absent from 
New York for some weeks, returned suddenly 
and unexpectedly from Central America on the 
morning after the capsize, in time to make the most 
of an event which he had practically predicted. 

Throughout 1883 and the following year many 
good races were sailed, the interest between the 
opposing factions being so keen that old friend- 
ships were severed and the yachting world of 
New York and in part Boston was divided into 
two hostile camps. Grayling was raised and 
speedily repaired, and in the capable hands of 
Captain Norman Terry soon made a reputation 



The Battle of tbe Types 



i6i 



for speed in smooth water and a good breeze, 
while Faniiy, Faiiita, and others of the skimming- 
dishes won under similar conditions. There were 
many occasions, however, especially in very light 
weather, when the heavy-displacement cutters 
won ; and still 
more when they 
scored easy vic- 
tories in hard 
weather, or over 
courses which 
the centre-board 
boats did not 
care to face. The 
building of large 
yachts of extreme 
light draft became less and less common, and 
the influence of the cutter type was visible every- 
where in deeper hulls, more freeboard, less sheer, 
longer counters, outside ballast, low cabin trunks, 
if not flush decks, and more or less exact imita- 
tions of the cutter rig. 

From the early days of yachting. New York has 
been the national centre of the sport, more promi- 
nent in many ways than Boston and claiming 
first attention from the historian ; but yachting 

M 




Grayling. 



1 62 American Yachting 

has always received a generous and hearty sup- 
port from all classes about Massachusetts Bay, 
and in the matter of type the development has 
always been of a more healthy form. While the 
centre-board skimming-dish existed in consider- 
able numbers and outrageous proportions, there 
has always been an appreciation of the value of 
depth and draft as factors of safety, even in centre- 
board boats; while the keel type has been well 
represented in point of numbers and in quality of 
model. While Shadow was deeper than most 
of her class, they in turn averaged much greater 
depth and draft than the New York yachts of 
similar classes. One of the early American cut- 
ters, designed by D. J. Lawlor of East Boston, 
was built in 1878 for Francis E. Peabody, of the 
Eastern Yacht Club ; Enterprise, as she was 
named, was 50 feet over all, 43 feet 9 inches on 
the water-line, 15 feet 8 inches breadth, 6 feet 
deep, and drawing 7 feet 3 inches. At the time 
when the keel type was represented in New York 
only by half a dozen cutters, Boston could boast 
of a fine fleet of keel yachts, racing and cruising 
along the whole eastern coast. 

After her Newport matches Madge was laid up 
there and Captain Duncan returned home, con- 



The Baffle of fbe Types 163 

tinuing in Mr. Coats' employ, and in 1883 taking 
command of the wonderful 68-tonner Marjorie, 
also designed by Watson, which he handled so 
successfully for many years. There was no rea- 
son for returning Madge to Scotland, and she 
was used for a time by friends of Mr. Coats, being 
finally sold, and falling into the hands of vandals 
who proceeded to fit her up for cruising by build- 
ing bulwarks a foot high and three inches thick 
around her deck and filling her interior with 
heavy furniture with marble tops ; at the same 
time her coppered sides were painted white to the 
water-line, until she was but a caricature of her- 
self. Later on she was sold to Lake Ontario, 
where, still hampered by a part of this weight, 
she was sailed mainly with the idea of carrying 
her big club topsail as long as possible, so that 
she was usually seen with sails almost flat on the 
water. 

So far as the recapture of the America Cup 
was concerned, the venture of Madge was a seri- 
ous mistake, as it opened the eyes of American 
yachtsmen in a measure to the weakness of the 
national type and the real qualities of the cutter. 
There was for a time a rumor that Marjorie 
would challenge for the cup in 1884, but nothing 



164 American Yachting 

came of it ; though it is now safe to say that, had 
she come out here in that year with Duncan in 
command, the whole history of yachting would 
have been changed, for she would in all probabil- 
ity have taken it home with her. Though the 
first confidence in the old sloop had been rudely 
shaken, national prejudice was still so powerful 
that one of the existing sloops. Grade, Mischief, 
or Fanny, would have been selected to meet, her, 
or a new sloop would have been built. In this 
latter case there would have been little doubt of 
the result, as the old builders of the day were 
vacillating weakly between the old ideas and the 
new, — not altogether firm in their belief in the 
former, and neither confident in the latter nor 
competent to utilize them. 

When the next challenge came, the course of 
evolution was moving with quickened pace and a 
great change was already imminent. 



CHAPTER XI 

BURGESS AND THE AMERICA CUP 

The challenge which finally came late in 1884 
was virtually a double one, the first informal 
notice, a letter from J. Beavor Webb, an Irish 
designer, naming the two 90-ton cutters designed 
by him, Geiiesla and Galatea, with the request 
that in the event of the defeat of the former the 
latter might be permitted to race during the same 
season. These two yachts were the latest repre- 
sentatives of the principal racing class in British 
waters, Galatea being as yet only on paper, while 
Genes ta had just completed her first season by 
taking the bulk of the prizes from Irex, then in 
her first year. While both were of the same 
breadth, — 15 feet, — Genesta was 81 feet on the 
water-line and 90 feet over all, and Galatea was 
5flfeet longer on the water-line and 10 feet over 
all ; both drawing the same, 1 3 feet 6 inches. 
Genesta was of composite build, steel frames and 
wood skin, with her ballast of 72 long tons entirely 
in her lead keel. Galatea was built of steel, 

165 



1 66 



American Yachting 



with 78 tons of lead moulded into the ballast 
trough formed by her steel keel. As events 
proved, Genesta was the better vessel, though a 
part of her superiority was due to the handling 
she received from Captain John Carter, one of 
the best racing skippers of his day. Both of these 
challenges, when finally confirmed in due form, 
were accepted, the general terms being that 




Genesta, 

each match should consist of a series of two out 
of three races, one over the club course and the 
others outside Sandy Hook, the challenging 
vessel being met in each case by a single repre- 
sentative of the defending club, named in advance 
of the first race. 

The fact that the two challengers were from 
eleven to sixteen feet longer on the load water- 
line than the largest sloops and cutters of the 
New York Yacht Club fleet made it imperative 



Burgess and the America Cup 167 

from the start that at least one new yacht should 
be built to meet them ; and even if they had 
been more nearly of the length of Grade and 




Genesta. 



Fanny, it is hardly probable that the old sloops 
would have been relied on after the increasing 
victories of Bedouiii, Wenonah, and the smaller 
cutters. James Gordon Bennett, then commo- 



1 68 American Yachting 

dore, with William P. Douglas, the vice commo- 
dore, determined to build a yacht to defend the 
Cup, and the question of type again came up. 

The opinions on the part of those immediately 
concerned and of the yachting public as well, 
varied by shades between two widely different ex- 
tremes. The old centre-board sloop of the Arrow 
type still had its defenders who would build 
another Maria ; others, less extreme, favored the 
"compromise sloop," of more modern form but 
still wide and shoal, with inside ballast, no outside 
keel, and sloop rig. Another party advocated 
the "compromise cutter," retaining much of the 
breadth and initial stability of the sloop with 
added depth of hull and a fixed keel of lead ; 
some favoring a centre-board in addition, while 
others advocated a keel boat. Finally there were 
some who would meet the British cutters with 
American yachts of nearly the same type except 
for added breadth — enlarged Bedouins and We- 
nonaks. 

The building of the Bennett-Douglas yacht 
was intrusted to the Cup committee, including 
Messrs. Philip Schuyler, J. F. Tams, C. H, Steb- 
bins, Jules A. Montant, and Joseph R. Busk, this 
committee being also charged with the negotia- 



Burgess and the America Cap 169 

tions and all detail connected with the actual 
sailing of the races. The question of type was 
settled by the choice of the " compromise sloop," 
and it was determined to build a bigger Mischief, 
the design of course being intrusted to Mr. Gary 
Smith. The dimensions finally determined on 
were: length over all, 94 feet; load water-line, 
85 feet; breadth, 22 feet 6 inches; depth, 8 feet 
7 inches ; draft, 7 feet 9 inches. As in Mischief, 
there was very little outside keel, a large centre- 
board being relied on for lateral resistance. The 
hull was of steel, with lead ballast stowed inside ; 
the stem was plumb, with a short counter aft ; and 
the rig, in spite of the jib and fore staysail which 
replaced the typical single jib of the old sloop, 
was otherwise patterned after the sloop, with a 
comparatively short base and great height. 

Following quickly on the announcement of 
this official attempt came the news of a second 
yacht, building in Boston for a syndicate of 
eastern yachtsmen, headed by General Gharles 
J. Paine and J. Malcolm Forbes, the designer 
being Edward Burgess. Though long known in 
eastern yachting, Mr. Burgess was at this time 
unknown elsewhere, having been in business for 
less than two years. Born in 1848, at Sandwich, 



lyo American Yachting 

on Cape Cod, one of several sons of Benjamin F. 
Burgess, a wealthy ship-owner and merchant of 




Puritan, 



Boston, he spent his youth largely on the water 
and among yachtsmen. With his brothers, Sidney 



Burgess and the America Cup 171 

W. and Walter, he owned cat-boats as a boy, and 
in 1868 he had built by J. B. Herreshoff the 
centre-board sloop Nimbus, of 33 feet water-line, 
in which he cruised and raced for some years. 
With his love for yachting was a strong taste for 
natural history, and on graduating from Harvard 
in 1 87 1 he devoted himself specially to entomol- 
ogy, being for a time an instructor at Harvard 
and afterward, for fifteen years, secretary of the 
Boston Society of Natural History. As a member 
of the Eastern, the Beverly, and the Dorchester 
yacht clubs and of the Somerset Club of Boston, 
and through his Harvard connections, he was 
closely associated with the leading yachtsmen of 
Massachusetts Bay and familiar with small and 
large yachts. He married in 1877 ^^^ continued 
his studious life; in 1883 he spent the summer 
on the Isle of Wight, and through his yachting 
experience abroad he became thoroughly familiar 
with the cutter type. His predilections were 
always toward the stanch and able yacht and 
deep-water sailing, and though never associated 
with the New York " cutter cranks," he was a 
believer in the cutter and on the cutter side of 
the controversy. 

Owing to business reverses which befell his 



172 American Yachting 

father, in 1884, he, in connection with his brother 
Sidney, established the Eastern Yacht Agency 
in Boston, for the designing and selHng of yachts. 
His knowledge of designing up to this time was 
only that of the educated and intelligent amateur, 
and his first work was in the superintendence of 
yachts built from designs by Watson, Dixon 
Kemp, and other British designers for Boston 
owners. He had built in 1881 the keel sloop 
Moya, 32 feet over all, 27 feet 6 inches water-line, 
9 feet breadth, and 5 feet draft, and two years 
later he designed the keel sloop Columbine, 
25 feet over all, 19 feet water-line, 7 feet breadth, 
and 4 feet 4 inches draft, for his own use. 
Prior to the planning of the new Cup defender 
his largest yacht was the cruising cutter Rondina, 
38 feet over all, 30 feet 6 inches on the water-line, 
8 feet in breadth, and of 6 feet 9 inches draft. 

The syndicate was composed of the following, 
all yachtsmen and members of the Eastern Yacht 
Club and several of the New York Yacht Club as 
well : General Charles J. Paine, J. Malcolm 
Forbes, William Gray, Jr., Henry S. Hovey, 
William F. Weld, Augustus Hemenway, W. H. 
Forbes, John L. Gardner, J. Montgomery Sears, 
and F. L. Higginson. General Paine, one of the 



Burgess and the America Cup 173 

prominent personalities of American yachting, 
was born in Boston in 1833, graduating at Har- 
vard twenty years later and preparing for the 
law, though not engaging in active practice. He 
served through the Civil War, and after its close 
devoted himself to the management of a fortune 
invested partly in railroads in the West. He 
joined the New York Yacht Club in 1880, 
and for some years after owned the schooner 
Halcyon, racing her in eastern waters and with 
the club fleet about Newport and Vineyard 
Sound. With no pretence to a knowledge of 
designing or naval architecture, he was a keen 
yachtsman and personally interested in develop- 
ing all the speed of which his yacht was capable, 
as shown in the career of Halcyon under his 
ownership. 

J. Malcolm Forbes, one of the Forbes family 
so long famous in the annals of Boston shipping, 
had spent much of his life in yachting about 
Boston and Vineyard Sound, owning many 
yachts; in 1882 he built from Dixon Kemp's 
designs the cutter Lapwing, of 35 feet water-line 
and 10 feet breadth, and he was familiar with the 
keel type. W. H. Forbes, of the same family, 
owned the keel sloop Hesper, designed for him 



174 American Yachting 

by Cary Smith in 1880, of 45 feet 6 inches water- 
Hne, 15 feet 5 inches breadth, and 5 feet 3 inches 
draft. Henry S. Hovey, of Boston and Glouces- 
ter, was a cruising yachtsman, the owner of the 
keel schooner Fortuna already mentioned. Will- 
iam Gray, Jr., was a clever amateur designer, who, 
in 1883, built from his own designs the keel sloop 
Huron, of 53 feet 6 inches water-line, 15 feet 
9 inches breadth, and 8 feet draft. William F. 
Weld, a member of another family famous in 
shipping and yachting, was the owner of the keel 
schooner Gitana, of 92 feet water-line, designed 
and built for him by D. J. Lawlor at East Boston 
in 1882, and had then cruised abroad in her. 
Augustus Hemenway, after sailing as a young 
man in the Herreshoff cat-boat of the time, 
ordered, in 1882, the keel cutter Beetle, of 27 feet 
water-line and 7 feet breadth and draft, from 
D. J. Lawlor. J. M. Sears was also one of, a 
family of yachtsmen, owning many yachts. 

Several causes led to the formation of this syn- 
dicate, a patriotic desire to aid in the defence of 
the Cup, a similar feeling in respect to the due 
representation of the Eastern Yacht Club and of 
Boston in an international event, and a desire to 
help Mr. Burgess, a personal friend of all the 



Burgess and the America Cup 175 

members. Taken in all its aspects, the attempt 
was a bold one. On the one hand was the New 
York Yacht Club, with all its resources, — one 
yacht, by the leading designer, being already 
ordered and others being under discussion. On 
the other hand were the two invading cutters, 
one just fresh from a successful season of racing 
and the other presumably an improvement on 
her. In spite of the confidence of his friends, 
the ability of Mr. Burgess was as yet untried, and 
Boston builders had of necessity confined their 
practice to small yachts. To design and build a 
racing yacht of much greater size than any 
single-sticker then afloat, was an undertaking of 
no small magnitude. 

In the first step, the selection of the type, the 
eastern syndicate was at an advantage as com- 
pared with the New York Yacht Club. The latter 
was in a measure committed to the centre-board 
sloop, and under existing conditions a radical 
departure in design was not to be expected. The 
Boston men, however, were accustomed to keel 
craft, Mr. Burgess was thoroughly familiar with the 
modern cutter, and with much at stake, a defeat 
in an entirely new line of experiment could be no 
more serious than if the old conventional lines 



176 



American Yachting 



were followed. The actual management of the 
affairs of the syndicate was intrusted to General 
Paine, Mr. J. Malcolm Forbes, and Mr. Gray, with 
Mr. Burgess, and after consideration they deter- 
mined to discard all tradition and conventional 
usage, and to design such a yacht as seemed best 
suited in the light of the knowledge of the day 
to meet the immediate end in view. The type 




Puritan. 



selected was the "compromise cutter" with a 
centre-board and lead keel. 

Puritan^ as she was christened on her launch- 
ing, May 26, 1885, was 94 feet over all, 81 feet 
i\ inches on the water-line as finally measured, 
22 feet 7 inches in breadth, and 8 feet 8 inches in 
draft to bottom of keel, her centre-board increas- 
ing the draft to about 20 feet. The sheer plan 
was that of the cutter, with plumb stem, circular 
sheer, and fairly high freeboard and bulwarks, and 



Burgess and the America Cup 177 

the cutter counter of the day. Her breadth was 
taken from the sloop, though moderate, and her 
depth and draft were considerably greater than 
the old sloops' but less than the cutters'. Outside 
of the hull proper there was a clearly defined keel 
some two feet deep, containing forty-eight tons 
of lead, — the slot for the centre-board being cut 
through this keel. The greatest draft was at the 
stern-post, which had more rake than the old sloop 
but much less than the deep cutters. The keel 
rounded up gradually, being well cut away at the 
forefoot. The section was of S form, with a dis- 
tinct bilge and a strong hollow to the floor about 
the garboards ; it had nothing in common with 
the cutter of the day, but was more like such 
British yachts as Floriiida and Rose of Devon^ 
built about 1870. It is probable that, as being 
nearest in size to the new boat, the schooner 
Halcyon was drawn upon for such data as she 
could be made to furnish ; but there is little in 
common between her model and that of Puritan, 
The rig was a compromise throughout; while 
the bowsprit was not fitted to house in bad 
weather, and the mainsail was laced along its 
foot to the boom, — two features directly at vari- 
ance with cutter practice, — the sail plan was 



178 American Yachting 

lower and longer on the foot than in the sloops, 
the gaff was longer and the hoist shorter, there 
was a long topmast and a very large club top- 
sail, and the head-sails were divided into jib 
and staysail. In mechanical details the cutter 
was followed very closely. 

The hull was of wood, built by G. Lawley & 
Son, at South Boston, there being no special 
attempt at lightness but the general construc- 
tion being much more thorough than in the 
average sloop. The sails were made in Boston, 
by J. H. McManus & Son. The sail area as 
measured by the New York Yacht Club rule 
was 7982 square feet. 

The news of a Boston aspirant was received 
with something of scorn by New York yachts- 
men, as reflected in some contemptuous utter- 
ances in the New York press about " brick 
sloops " and " bean boats " that might better 
stay east of Cape Cod; but in her maiden race, 
the Eastern Yacht Club regatta on June 30, 
she easily led the fleet, of which the America 
was the last, beating the latter by about an 
hour. The preliminary trials of the New York 
representative, Priscilla, were less promising, 
but still it was confidently expected that she 



Burgess and tbe America Cup 179 

would make quick work of Puritan in their 
first meeting on the New York Yacht Club 
cruise, as well as in the trial races planned to 
follow. So far from this being the case, the 
first meeting of the two — off Newport on Au- 
gust 3, the Goelet cup race sailed in a fresh 
southeast breeze — resulted in a decisive victory 
for Puritan, by over ten minutes, corrected 
time. 

After the cruise, on which Puritan won two 
more races to one of Priscilld s, they returned 
to New York, and the latter had her mast un- 
shipped and shortened five feet, with other 
alterations. 

The trial races were sailed in the latter part 
of August, the 70-footers Bedouin and Grade 
entering with Puritan and Priscilla. The re- 
sults of three separate races showed Piiritan 
to be decidedly faster than Priscilla^ while both 
were from a quarter to a half hour faster than 
the old sloop and cutter. 

Early in the season it was announced that 
Galatea would be unable to cross before the 
following year, but on July 16 Genesta arrived 
at New York after a voyage of twenty-four days, 
sailing alone under jury rig with no convoying 



i8o American Yachting 

steamer. Her owner, Sir Richard Sutton, was 
a young English yachtsman who in 1882 in- 
herited the schooner Elmma, 335 tons, from his 
father, Sir Frederick Sutton, and in 1884 built 
and raced Genesta, As was proved in the 
course of his visit, he was a thorough sportsman 
and a keen yachtsman, but with little racing 
experience the responsibility for the successful 
issue of the races devolved on the skipper and 
designer. 

The first race was set for September 7, 1885, 
but there was no wind ; the second race was 
started on the following day off the Sandy 
Hook light-ship in a very light wind. The 
course was twenty miles to windward, and as 
Genesta came for the line on starboard tack 
she was fouled by Puritan on port tack, the 
bowsprit of the challenger being carried away 
short at the gammon iron. The regatta com- 
mittee, Messrs. Tams, Stebbins, and Montant, at 
once disqualified Puritan and gave Genesta the 
option of starting and of being awarded one 
leg for the cup, provided she finished within 
the time limit of seven hours for the 40-mile 
course. Sir Richard Sutton very promptly 
declared that he had come here to sail races 



Burgess and tbe America Cup i8i 

and not to take them by default, and that he 
would prefer to make repairs and start anew 
at a later date. The Puritan party made all 
possible apologies to the club and to Sir Rich- 
ard for what was purely an accident, though 
under the conditions almost an inexcusable one, 
and the incident closed with no ill feeling. 

After two postponements for lack of wind 
the first race was sailed, over the inside course, 
on September 14 in a light breeze, Puritan 
winning by over sixteen minutes, corrected time. 
The second race followed two days later, the 
course being twenty miles to leeward and return 
from the Scotland light-ship. The start was 
made before a light breeze that freshened on 
the run out from northwest; crossing in the 
lead, Genesta gained i minute 21 seconds on 
the run. Shortly after they turned the outer 
mark the wind freshened to about thirty miles. 
Puritan housed her topmast, but Captain Carter, 
with a poor judgment in marked contrast to his 
other work in this country, persisted in carr}^- 
ing his topmast on end and a jib-headed top- 
sail set, though the sail was not drawing and 
the yacht would have gone faster with topmast 
housed. After one of the most exciting fights 



1 82 American Yachting 

and closest finishes ever seen in a Cup race, 
Puritan won by i minute 38 seconds, corrected 
time. No small amount of the credit for Puri- 
tans good work through the season was due 
to her skipper, Captain Aubrey Crocker, of Cape 
Cod, for many years skipper of Shadow. 

The challenge of Galatea was postponed until 
1886, in the meanwhile two more yachts being 
built to meet her. The Boston yachtsmen, very 
properly elated by their victory, did not pro- 
pose to lose their laurels at once, and Mr. Bur- 
gess was commissioned by General Paine to 
design for him as sole owner an enlarged and 
improved Puritan — Mayflower by name. She 
was built by Lawley & Son during the winter, 
of the same general construction as Puritan, 
While following the latter's model, she was 
larger throughout, her over-all length being 
100 feet, water-line 85 feet 6 inches, breadth 
23 feet 6 inches, draft 9 feet 10 inches. Her 
lead keel weighed 37 tons, with 1 1 tons stowed 
inside, and her draft with board down was over 
20 feet. 

New York was also in the field with a new 
yacht, Atlantic, modelled, by Philip Ellsworth 
and built by John Mumm, at South Brooklyn, 



Burgess and tbe America Cup 183 

for a syndicate composed of members of the 
Atlantic Yacht Club. In the previous year 
there had been more or less rambling discussion 
as to the possibilities of the schooner Grayling 
if rigged as a sloop, with some talk of a new 
Ellsworth model to meet Priscilla and Puritan, 
but nothing came of either plan. As the whole 
interest in yachting was now centred in the 
" big sloops," as they were called, the plan of 
an Ellsworth boat was revived and put into 
execution. 

Had the original plan been carried out in 
1885, it is probable that the yacht would have 
been like Grayling wide and shoal, with all 
inside ballast and the old sloop rig; the success 
of Ptiritan, however, had already worked such 
a change of ideas among all classes of yachts- 
men that the lead keel was considered indis- 
pensable. Atla7itic was a comparatively deep 
yacht, drawing 9 feet 3 inches on a water-line 
of 83 feet, and with 33 tons of outside lead and 
a mixed rig, part sloop and part cutter. As a 
combination of old and new ideas she was not 
successful, and after a brief career as a sloop 
she was converted to a, schooner and used many 
years for cruising. 



184 American Yachting 

Mayflower, in her early trials, was less success- 
ful than Puritan, showing a lack of stability, but 
this was partly remedied by transferring some 
of her inside ballast to the keel. Pr is cilia, under 
the ownership of Commodore A. Cass Canfield, 
of the Seawanhaka Corinthian Yacht Club, was 
altered and raced with the other three through 
the season, finishing with two trial races in 
August. These were both won by Mayflower^ 
and she was selected to defend the Cup. 

The challenger, Galatea, was owned by Lieu- 
tenant William Henn, R.N., a native of Dublin, 
who entered the Royal Navy as a boy of thirteen 
in i860, serving until 1875, when he was retired 
at his own request, devoting his time mainly to 
yachting. Mrs. Henn, who prior to her marriage 
did a great deal of yachting with her brother, 
accompanied him in all his cruises, and their 
yawl Gertrude was for years their home, either 
in the Mediterranean or British waters. While 
Galatea was designed and built especially for the 
challenge for the America Cup, and was in type 
and dimensions the racing cutter of the period, 
she was fitted in every way as the permanent 
home of her owners. Her skipper, Dan Bradford, 
had been in charge of the old Gertrude, and was 



Burgess and the America Cup 185 

more of a cruising than a racing man, though a 
good yacht sailor. The voyage across the Atlan- 
tic was treated as a pleasure cruise, Lieutenant 
Henn and his wife being on board and taking 
a full month for the trip. The yacht was under 
jury rig, with short bowsprit, topmast, and boom, 
but carried her racing mast. 

The first race was sailed on September 
7, over the inside course, and in very light 
weather, resulting in an easy victory for May- 
Jlower, by twelve minutes. A second trial two 
days later failed for lack of wind, and the second 
and last race was sailed on September 11, partly 
a drifting match in a very light breeze, Mayflower 
winning by half an hour. 

Though Galatea was outclassed by Mayflower 
in all weathers, the races were most unsatisfac- 
tory, the weather greatly favoring the home boat. 
Lieutenant Henn issued a challenge to all Ameri- 
can yachts to race around the Bermudas and 
back, which of course was not accepted, and later 
he made a private match with General Paine, 
between Galatea and Mayflower, to be sailed off 
Marblehead in a breeze ; but after waiting for ten 
days without wind, the latter laid up and the 
match was never sailed. In the following spring 



1 86 American Yachting 

he visited Marblehead and started Galatea against 
Mayflower in the annual regatta of the Eastern 
Yacht Club, sailed in a strong breeze, and on 
being badly beaten was perfectly satisfied, hav- 
ing had the trial which he wished in Galatea s 
weather. As a sportsman and yachtsman he 
made many friends in this country, and his death 
a few years later was widely regretted. 

The building of Puritan marks the end of a 
very important era in American yachting, begun 
some half-dozen years before by the introduction 
of the British cutter. Her advent marked the 
passing of the old centre-board sloop and of the 
rule-o '-thumb modeller, and the general recogni- 
tion of a new type, far abler, safer, and faster 
than the old, and of the professional yacht 
designer. From a technical standpoint she em- 
bodied nothing more than such a compromise 
model as Valkyr, but the magnitude of her vic- 
tory over such a yacht as Genes ta in an inter- 
national contest served of itself to make the 
type prominent and popular. As an amateur 
and a newcomer, winning from experienced 
professionals, Mr. Burgess became instantly fa- 
mous from one end of the country to the other ; 
his fame extending far outside the domain of 
yachting. 



Burgess and the America Cup 187 

Year by year from the time of the Madge races 
it became more and more evident that the old 
centre-board sloop was hopelessly wrong in pro- 
portions, model, construction, ballasting, and rig ; 
but, in spite of this, the majority of American 
yachtsmen were still unwilling to admit that 
British ideas were right. After her final vic- 
tory over Genes fa, Puritan was proclaimed to 
be not British, but Boston, — the perfect embodi- 
ment of purely American ideas. History was 
ransacked to prove that depth of hull, outside 
keel, and outside ballast were all American insti- 
tutions from the days of Gimcrack and America, 
The result of this curious change of course was 
most beneficial in the immediate demand for a 
vastly better type of yacht. 

The effect on British yachting was no less 
powerful and beneficial. The defeat of Genesta, fol- 
lowed by that of Galatea, led to the abolition of the 
tonnage rule which had hampered yacht design- 
ing from its infancy, and the enactment of a rule 
based on length of water-line and sail area, to take 
effect in 1887 and to run for at least seven years. 
With the tax on breadth and the false measure- 
ment of depth abolished, British yachting entered 
on a period of activity and prosperity. 



CHAPTER XII 

THISTLE AND THE " NEW DEED OF GIFT " 

Closely following on the defeat of Galatea, 
the Royal Clyde Yacht Club of Glasgow held a 
meeting and decided to challenge for the Cup. 
Under the terms of the Second Deed of Gift no 
challenger was permitted to give more than seven 
months' notice, but as this was to the serious 
disadvantage of both sides, the matter was ap- 
proached in a plain and sensible manner by a 
letter from William York, secretary of the Royal 
Clyde Yacht Club, to John H. Bird, secretary of 
the New York Yacht Club, stating that the 
former club desired to arrange a match for the 
Cup, to be sailed in September, 1887 ; but that as 
it was prevented from issuing a formal challenge 
more than seven months in advance of the date 
of the first race, it was desirous of making all 
arrangements in the meanwhile, and of forward- 
ing the formal challenge in proper season. The 
letter also stated that the challenging club would 
build a yacht, of about the size of Mayflower^ if 



Thistle and tbe ''New Deed of Gift'' 189 

the New York Yacht Club preferred to race that 
yacht, but suggesting that a smaller class, of 65 
to 75 feet water-line, would be as satisfactory for 
racing and less costly. 

The whole tenor of this letter was in perfect 
accord with the spirit and letter of the original 
Deed of Gift, inviting a " mutual agreement" for a 
" friendly competition." That it was not in accord 
with one of the provisions of the second deed 
was solely because that peculiar document posi- 
tively prohibited a challenger from giving such 
ample notice as could only be to the manifest 
advantage of the defender in giving ample time 
for building. This letter was acknowledged with 
the most scant courtesy; and when laid before the 
New York Yacht Club a resolution was passed 
to send to the Royal Clyde Yacht Club a copy 
of the second deed, with a notice that when a 
challenge came " in proper form," it would receive 
due consideration. In spite of this frigid recep- 
tion the club persisted in its determination to 
challenge, and further efforts were made to come 
to an agreement as to the general size of the com- 
peting yachts, in order that neither party might 
outbuild the other. All efforts in this direction 
failed, the response being as before, that when a 



igo 



American Yachting 



challenge in due form was received, it would be 
acted on. Under these circumstances the chal- 
lengers determined to adhere to the letter of the 
existing deed, and further, to keep to themselves 
all particulars of their yacht until compelled to 
disclose them. 

The order for the design was placed with George 
L. Watson, a member of the club and the designer 





Thistle. 



of Madge and Marjorie, whose services were 
given freely to the syndicate, the builders being 
D. and W. Henderson of Glasgow. The first 
preparation for the work was the building of a 
tightly enclosed shed, with locked doors, to which 
no one was admitted but the designer and those 
immediately connected with the construction of 
the yacht. Here was built during the winter of 
1 886- 1 88 7 the widest cutter seen for many years 
in British waters, her breadth being 20 feet 4 



Thistle and the ''New Deed of Gift" 191 

inches on a water-line of 85 feet, as originally 
designed. With a clipper bow in place of the 
plumb stem of the older cutters, her over-all length 
was 108 feet 6 inches. Although a keel boat, 
with no centre-board, her draft was but 13 feet, 
and added to this her forefoot was well cut away 
and the bottom of her keel rounded off to give a 
minimum of wetted surface for work in light 
weather. While such a yacht as Genesta, with 
a deep forefoot giving a great area of lateral plane, 
and a flat wall side, had something to hold her 
in windward work, there was nothing about the 
new boat to prevent her from sliding to leeward. 
The fact seems to be that, as in the narrow cutters, 
it was necessary to carry the ballast in a very 
long lead keel, in order to obtain power to carry 
sail. This length of keel and flat side relieved the 
designer from any serious consideration of the 
question of lateral resistance. When the added 
breadth made it possible to cut up the keel and 
at the same time gave a round instead of a flat 
side, some addition to the area of lateral plane 
was necessary; but in the many considerations 
involved in the production of a new type for a 
special and important purpose the designer over- 
looked this, just as happened years later in the 
case of Colonia, 



192 American Yachting 

The new yacht, Thistle, was launched on 
April 26, the secret of her dimensions being well 
kept, in spite of many attempts to fathom it, 
until it was in part disclosed by the formal 
challenge, sent to New York in March. Long 
before this General Paine had announced his 
readiness to defend the Cup with a new Burgess 




Volunteen 

yacht, and the matter by general consent had 
been left to him as the best fitted for the work. 
The making of the design was postponed until 
the arrival of the challenge, in which the water- 
line of Thistle w^as given as 85 feet, when a 
length of 85 feet 10 inches was decided on as 
the water-line of the new defender. She also was 
given a clipper bow, making her over-all length 
106 feet 3 inches; her breadth was 23 feet 2 
inches and draft 10 feet, exclusive of the centre- 
board, which drew about 21 feet. The hull was 



Thistle and the ''New Deed of Gift^' 193 

of steel, built by the Pusey & Jones Company, 
at Wilmington, Delaware ; and as the work was 
necessarily hurried, the plating was rough in 
appearance, especially when compared side by 
side with the perfect workmanship of Thistle. 
The general form was a development from 
Puritan and Mayflower, narrower, deeper, of 
greater displacement (130 tons) and with 55 tons 
of lead in the trough keel ; the sail area being 
9271 square feet, or 3000 square feet in excess of 
Thistle. Unlike the two older boats, her bowsprit 
was fitted to house, as in the English cutters, for 
bad weather. 

In spite of the reason for it, the secrecy attend- 
ing the building of Thistle gave rise to much ill- 
feeling in America, and this was greatly increased 
when, upon measurement prior to the first race, 
her load water-line proved to be 86.40 feet, or 
some seventeen inches in excess of that given in 
the challenge. There was no evidence that, like 
many American yachts, she had not gone below 
her designed lines through an error on the part 
of her designer, — a matter of such common oc- 
currence as to call for the frequent enactment or 
extension of exemption clauses in the rules of all 
yacht clubs to admit to fixed classes yachts whose 



194 American Yachting 

actual dimensions exceeded those of their designs. 
As she paid for the excess in the time allowance, 
no injustice was done to the defending boat, but 
for a time there was a prospect of a break in all 
relations. This was finally averted and the races 
sailed, one over the club course and one outside. 

Volunteer was sailed by Captain " Hank " Haff, 
one of the best of American skippers, while 
Thistle was sailed by Captain John Barr, a Scotch 
skipper already w^ell known here through his suc- 
cessful handling of the cutter Clara. The inside 
course was sailed in a light breeze. Volunteer 
winning by nearly twenty minutes. The second 
race was sailed over a 20-mile course to wind- 
ward from the Scotland light-ship, in a strong 
breeze and sea. Volunteer leading by nearly a 
quarter of an hour at the weather mark, but 
losing three minutes to Thistle on the run in. 

When the Royal Clyde party reached New 
York at the end of the last race, a note was sent 
by messenger to the New York Yacht Club 
stating that a new challenge would be issued as 
soon as it could be formally done, the challenging 
yacht to be of 70 feet water-line. Three days 
after this, at a special meeting of the club held to 
arrange for a testimonial to General Paine and 



Thistle and the ''New Deed of Gift'' 195 

other similar matters, a motion was introduced to 
the effect that a special committee of the club be 
appointed with power to return the America Cup 
to Mr. Schuyler and to receive it from him upon 
new conditions. This was done, an entirely new 
deed of gift being drawn up by the committee and 
accepted by it on behalf of the club. When 
finally submitted to the club at a meeting on 
October 27, the chairman was obliged to decide 
(upon the objection of C. Smith Lee) that the 
club as a body could not vote on the question, 
the special committee, by virtue of the power 
intrusted to it, having already finally accepted 
for the club what has since been known as the 
" New Deed of Gift." 

One of many peculiar features of this document 
is its quasi-legal form and great length, as com- 
pared with the brief and simple paper in which 
the original donors of the Cup recorded their 
intentions as to its future. On account of this 
length it is desirable to summarize the leading 
points, the principal one being that in order to 
obtain a match a challenging club must give 
ten months' notice, including the length on the 
water-line, the breadth at the water-line and the 
extreme breadth, and the draft of water. The 



196 American Yachting 

competing vessels were limited to not less than 
65 feet nor more than 90 feet on the water-line 
for single-stick vessels, the corresponding limits 
for schooners being 80 feet and 1 1 5 feet. It was 
provided that no restrictions should be placed 
upon centre-boards, nor should they be considered 
a part of the vessel for purposes of measurement. 
The number of races which a challenger might 
demand by right was named as three, all to be 
sailed over ocean courses with at least twenty-two 
feet depth of water. Upon the publication of this 
document the Royal Clyde challenge was formally 
withdrawn and the leading British clubs joined 
with yachtsmen, both foreign and American, in 
denouncing the unfair conditions imposed on all 
future challengers. 

From a practical standpoint the demand for 
dimensions was an impossibility. The designer 
of a challenger would be compelled to complete 
his design in all its minute details almost a 
year in advance of the first race in order to 
place the principal dimensions in the hands of 
the New York Yacht Club ten months in ad- 
vance. After these dimensions were thus on 
record he could in no way depart from them, 
either in lengthening or shortening the water- 



Thistle and the ''New Deed of Gift" 197 

line to obtain the best trim, or in adding ballast 
to the keel, as was done in the case of May- 
flower. Meanwhile, with the challenger thus 
hampered in every way, the defender had ten 
months in which to study his dimensions with 
a view to outbuilding. This ended, as foretold 
at the time, all further racing for the Cup. In 
1888 the club in part receded from its original 
position in offering to accept a challenge upon 
the same conditions as those governing the 
matches of 1885 and 1886, provided the "new 
deed " were recognized as legal ; but no foreign 
club came forward to accept the offer. 



CHAPTER XIII 



CLARA, MINERVA, AND THE FORTY-FOOT CLASS 

Just at the time in August, 1885, when the 
yachting world of New York and Boston was 
on the qui vive over the first meeting of Puri- 
tan and Priscilla at Newport, there sailed into 
New York late one night a little cutter, thirty- 




Clara. 
Typical narrow cutter, 1884. 

nine days out from England. She was brought 
out from the Thames by one of the crews 
which make a regular business of taking Brit- 
ish yachts to distant foreign ports. Her skipper 
was unfamiliar with New York Harbor, and 
before he fully realized that his long cruise was 
over he had run far above all the yacht anchor- 

198 



Clara, Minerva, and the Forty-foot Class 199 

ages and well up the Hudson River. One of 
the crew, a boy about out of his 'teens, was 
Charles Barr, a brother of Captain John Barr, 
the skipper who, coming out by steamer, was 
to race the yacht on this side. 

Clara was designed by Will Fife, Jr., and 
built under his management by the Culzean 
Ship-building Company, on the Clyde, in 1884, 
for J. George Clark, a Scotch yachtsman. She 
was designed for the 20-ton class, her dimensions 
being : length over all, 62 feet 2 inches ; load 
water-line, 53 feet; breadth, 9 feet i inch; draft, 
9 feet 10 inches. She was of composite con- 
struction, steel frames and wood stem, stern-post, 
keel, and planking, with all her ballast on the 
keel. In her first season she proved very suc- 
cessful, and also in the early part of 1885 ; 
then she was sold to Charles Sweet, a member 
of the Royal Thames Yacht Club, a London 
barrister who was visiting New York for an in- 
definite stay in connection with some legal busi- 
ness. In this he was associated with Charles 
H. Tweed, a New York lawyer residing at 
Beverly, Massachusetts, in summer, a lover of 
yachting but not a racing man. The skipper 
selected by Mr. Sweet was Captain John Barr, 



200 American Yachting 

a Scotchman from the Clyde, where he stood 
very high as a bold, cautious, and skilful racing 
man. 

After refitting, Clara joined the fleet of the 
Eastern Yacht Club at Newport and sailed 
with it to New London, being third yacht out 
of a fleet of thirteen, all larger than she. The 
fleet continued to New York to witness the 
G 6716 sta- Puritan match, after which there were 
open races. In the race for the Bennett- Douglas 
cups, on September 21, Clara won a sweepstakes 
of $600 from the cutter Isis and the compro- 
mise sloops Daphn6 and Athloii, all new yachts 
of her class. This was the auspicious beginning 
of a remarkable career, Clara, under the owner- 
ship of Messrs. Sweet and Tweed and the cap- 
taincy of John Barr, defeating everything in her 
class, new and old, until she was looked upon 
as invincible. In 1886 the compromise cutter 
Cind6r6lla, designed by Cary Smith, was built 
to meet her, but proved unable to defeat her; 
and in the following year the Ellsworth sloop 
Anaconda, built for the same purpose, fared no 
better. Clara was of the most extreme type 
of narrow cutter, her water-line being almost 
six times her breadth. She was an excellent boat 



Clara, Minerva, and the Forty-foot Class 201 

in all weathers, and the handling of Captain Barr 
was well worthy of Mr. Fife's design. 

The effect of the Cup races of 1885, 1886, and 
1887 was to stimulate yachting in all parts of 
the country. Clubs were formed in remote locali- 
ties, the established clubs grew in numbers and 
wealth, and many new clubs sprang up beside 
them on the coast. Mr. Burgess was almost 
swamped with orders for all classes of vessels, 
small and large yachts, fishermen and steamers ; 
and other designers shared in the general pros- 
perity. Class racing was at its height, the now 
large fleet being divided in a fairly systematic 
manner into many classes with fixed limits of 
water-line, to which yachts were specially de- 
signed. The 90-foot schooner class included 
such noted yachts as Moritauk, Grayling, the 
new Burgess boats Sachem and Merli7i, and the 
imported Miranda ; the smaller schooners, promi- 
nent among which was Iroquois, made another 
good class. The Cup class included Puritan, 
Mayflower, Volunteer, Atlantic, and Pris cilia, 
these by degrees being converted to the schooner 
rig. In the 70-foot class were Bedouin, Grade, 
Fanny, Stranger, Thetis, Huron, and Mischief ; 
and then came the 53-foot class, with Clara, 



202 American Yachting 

Athlon^ Daphne^ Cinderella^ Anaconda^ and some 
of the old sloops remodelled in hull and with 
new rigs patterned after the cutter. 

After completing the design of Volunteer early 
in 1887, Mr. Burgess designed among other 
yachts a "keel sloop," so called, for Charles 
Francis Adams, 3d, and his brother, George C. 
Adams, two young yachtsmen who had grown 
up in cat-boats about Quincy, afterward going 
into small keel sloops for the racing about Massa- 
chusetts Bay. Papoose was in effect a keel cutter, 
of similar type to the Itchen Length Class boats 
then in use about the Solent, but refined in form 
and rig. She was 44 feet over all, 36 feet on the 
water-line, 1 2 feet 6 inches in breadth, and 7 feet 6 
inches in draft, with 10 tons of lead on her keel. 
With a plumb stem and the sheer and counter of a 
cutter, she was a smart-looking craft ; and though 
built to no class, she raced during the season 
with the old yachts of about her length, and 
proved very fast. 

About the same time there was built at City 
Island, for P. S. Pearsall of New York, a compro- 
mise cutter of 40 feet water-line, with lead keel 
and centre-board, designed by Cary Smith, and 
named Banshee, The success of Papoose in the 



Clara, Minerva, and the Forty-foot Class 203 

East against such well-known boats as Shadow 
and her fellows led to a visit to Long Island 
Sound and a series of races with Banshee, in 
which the keel boat was the winner. Coming at 
a time when the excitement over the international 
match was still alive, these races attracted much 
attention and resulted in the establishment of a 
new class of 40 feet water-Hne. The Adams 
brothers sold Papoose and ordered a similar cutter 
of 40 feet water-line, Babboon, to replace her ; 
F. W. Flint of New York ordered of Mr. Burgess 
a centre-board 40, Nymph ; Augustus Hemenway 
ordered the centre-board Chiquita; and James 
Means, the keel boat Kara. The racing of these 
boats in 1888 led to a number of orders for the 
following year. Mr. Burgess turned out Verena, 
Lotowana, Awa, Mariquita, Tomahawk, Chispa, 
Choctaw, and Ventura; Cary Smith designed the 
centre-board Gorilla; William Gardner, a young 
American designer educated in England, found 
his first order in Liris ; and A. G. McVey, a 
Boston amateur, designed Helen ajtd Alice, At 
the same time a smaller class, of 30 feet water- 
line, had found almost as much favor with yachts- 
men, especially about Boston. 

Early in 1888 Charles H. Tweed, — one of the 



204 American Yachting 

owners of Clara, who had in 1886 imported the 
narrow Watson 5-ton ner Sho7ia, placing Charles 
Barr in charge with John Barr, Jr., as " crew," — 
placed an order with Will Fife, Jr., for a cutter of 
40 feet water-line, to be used for pleasure sailing 
about Marblehead and Beverly, the details being 
left to the designer with no stipulations, save that 
she was to be a safe and comfortable little boat. 
When she neared completion in the summer, 
Captain Charles Barr was sent across to Fairlie. 
She was launched with the name of Minerva, and 
under a small rig Captain Barr started across the 
Atlantic. She made the voyage in safety, and dur- 
ing the fall her owner used her about Marble- 
head. Early in the spring of 1889 she was fitted 
out by Captain Barr and sailed to New York, Mr. 
Tweed being a member of the Corinthian Yacht 
Club, and, as much of his time was spent in that 
city, intending to use her about the bay and 
Sound. 

The season of 1889 opened with a large and 
fine fleet of 40-footer3, as well as with a fine 
representation in the 70-foot class, including 
Titania and Katrina, — the latter a new steel 
centre-board cutter designed by Cary Smith. 
The 40-footers were wide, powerful boats, of great 



Clara, Minerva, and the Forty-foot Class 205 

draft, and well ballasted and sparred. The larg- 
est was Liris, designed by William Gardner for 
C. W. Wetmore, Colgate Hoyt, and Samuel 
Mather, of the Seawanhaka Corinthian Yacht 
Club; a keel boat of 57 feet over all, 13 feet 6 
inches breadth, and 9 feet 9 inches draft, with a 
lightly constructed hull, steel frames, and double 




Minerva. 
Wide cutter, 1888. 



planking, the outer skin of mahogany. Her lead 
keel weighed i6 tons, and her sail area measured 
3603 square feet ; her spars were all hollow, and 
she had imported canvas, the light sails being of 
the then new " Union silk," used two years before 
by Thistle, She was manned by a Corinthian 
crew, and in most of her races was steered by a 
Corinthian. The Burgess 40-footers were of the 
same general type but of less draft and power. 



2o6 American Yachting 

with from 3100 to 3300 square feet of sail; they 
were heavier in construction, with single plank- 
ing, mostly on wooden frames, and solid spars. 
The Cary Smith boat, Gorilla, was of the deep 
centre-board type, 14 feet 3 inches wide, and very 
powerful. The owners of the class included such 
yachtsmen as E. D. Morgan, Royal Phelps Car- 
roll, and August Belmont, prominent as owners 
of much larger racing yachts. 

After starting bravely in the first race, the 
annual regatta of the New York Yacht Club, on 
June 13, Liris lost her new hollow mast before 
she was outside Sandy Hook, and reluctantly 
took a tow for home, leaving her competitors 
going like steamboats for the light-ship in a 
fresh southwest breeze. In discussing their 
hard luck, — as the yacht must inevitably miss the 
other races of the week while awaiting a new 
spar, — it was suggested by E. M. Padelford, one 
of her Corinthian crew, that Mr. Tweed might 
be willing to lend Minerva for a race, he being 
deputized by the others to arrange the matter if 
possible. Mr. Tweed consented very readily, 
and two days later, in the Seawanhaka race, 
Minerva started, with J. F. Lovejoy, a Corinthian, 
at the stick, and a Corinthian crew with the excep- 



Clara, Minerva, and the Forty-foot Class 207 

tion of Captain Tom Sloane, the skipper of Lzrzs, 
The weather was variable, with calms mixed in 
with a squall, but it seemed to make little differ- 
ence to Minerva. She went ahead, with or with- 
out wind, and won easily. From this on she was 
raced regularly through the season, in the hands 
of Captain Charles Barr, winning with a sad 
monotony, until the cry, almost pathetic, went up 
from the press and from yachtsmen, for " any- 
thing to stop Mmervar 

The vast difference between her and her 
American rivals is shown in the sail area, a total 
of but 2700 square feet, or 75 per cent of that 
of Liris. Her length over all was 54 feet, her 
breadth was 10 feet 4 inches, and draft 9 feet. 
Her form was beautifully proportioned, with fair, 
easy lines, and she had but a moderate area of 
lateral plane, almost triangular in outline, as com- 
pared with the deep, straight keels of the Burgess 
boats; and yet she went to windward in a w^onder- 
ful way. 

The summer of 1889 was spent by the Adams 
brothers in British waters, where they sailed on 
the leading yachts, including the crack lo-rater, 
Fife's Yvonne, and made themselves thoroughly 
familiar with British yachts and British racing 



2o8 American Yachting 

methods. On their return they placed an order 
with Mr. Burgess for a new boat that should 
really "stop Minerva^ The result was Gossoon, 
a keel boat, of less breadth, fuller section below, 
and more displacement than the older boats, and 
with a more moderate sail plan. The construction, 
which was considered very light at the time, 
included a number of steel frames in addition to 
the usual wooden ones, the planking being of 
wood. Two other new Burgess boats were added 
to the class, Ventura and Moccasi^i, — both deep 
centre-board cutters, of different proportions. 
These three, with Liris, Mariquita, and the older 
boats, made a magnificent fleet, many of them 
being raced persistently throughout the season of 
1890. The result was to the credit of the little 
Scotch cutter ; at the end of the season she tied 
Gossoon, the leading American boat, each having 
won five out of ten races in which they met, the 
result of one race being in dispute, owing to a 
question as to a measurement which was never 
verified. Though it is the common belief that 
Gossoon really did what she was built for in de- 
feating Minerva, the most that can fairly be said 
is that the final result was a draw between the 
new and the old boat. 



Clara, Minerva, and the Forty-foot Class 209 

The 40-foot class must always stand as one 
of the best racing classes in American yachting. 
It numbered in all twenty-one yachts, all but five 
being designed by Mr. Burgess, of the same 
water-line length, in addition to such old boats as 
elected to race with the class. All of them were 
stanch, strongly built craft, of moderate cost 




Gossoon. 
Typical Burgess cutter. 1888-1890. 

{Minerva cost but ^5000) ; they were used for 
cruising when not busy with the races; and they 
were ultimately sold at good figures. With the 
exception of the steel Tomahawk, all are afloat 
and in use at the present time. They brought 
into racing many good yachtsmen, and they 
proved a good school for racing skippers. The 
30-foot class was a miniature of the other, giving 
good racing for several seasons in an excellent 
type of yacht. 



2IO American Yachting 

It is hard to say now why the 40-foot class 
was abandoned at the time when the racing was 
at its height; but after the end of the season of 
1890 the idea of a new and larger class was 
mooted in the daily papers, and was taken up by 
some of those who had failed in their efforts to 
head the old class. The new class, of 46 feet 
water-line, offered a larger and more costly boat 
in every way, with little more accommodation and 
in no way giving better sport ; but it soon found 
supporters, and orders were placed with both 
Burgess and Fife. 



^ 



CHAPTER XIV 



HERRESHOFF AND GLORIANA 



The changes 
in the form of 
yachts have 
been so varied 
and contradic- 
tory that it is 
almost impossi- 
ble to ascribe 
them to any 
sound technical 
foundation on 
the accepted 
principles of 
naval architec- 
ture ; and it 
would appear that, from the first, builders and 
even designers have followed very largely their 
own ideas, influenced by tradition, measurement 
rules, and local conditions. The leading char- 
acteristic of the first yachts was the " cod's head 

211 




Clon'ana. 



212 American Yachting 

and mackerers tail " form, with blunt bows and 
fine run, — a model which had no scientific basis 
and which was entirely wrong. The revolution 
brought about by George Steers, Scott Russell, 
and the designers of Mosquito produced a model 
in every way adapted for speed and for sea- 
going work, the yachts of the early fifties stand- 
ing to-day as brilliant marks in the history of 
yacht designing. It was not long, however, before 
these models were cast aside, in England for 
the narrow cutter, and in America for the wide 
sloop, — flat, unshapely things whose bulging 
middles made necessary the most extreme form 
of hollow bow. Such forms were dangerous in 
smooth water from their lack of stability, and they 
were far worse in a seaway, the hollow bows lack- 
ing buoyancy and going under as soon as the 
vessel heeled and immersed her full, heavy 
quarter. 

Under the guiding hands of Gary Smith and 
Burgess, yacht designing was placed upon a new 
and higher plane and a great revolution was 
accomplished in form, in both the keel and 
centre-board types, as shown in Intrepid, Fortuna, 
Papoose, Babboon, Puritan, Iroquois, Banshee, 
and Nymph, In all of these and many sister 



Herresboff and Gloriana 213 

boats the general form, while modified in propor- 
tions and details according to size and intended 
use, possessed the same characteristics as that of 
the America, being based, like all of Steers' work, 
upon thoroughly sound principles of design. In 
accordance w^ith American ideas the proportion 
of breadth to length was high, and the proportion 
of depth to breadth was in some cases low, but 
taken together the fleet was characterized by sea- 
worthy form and a stanch and strong construc- 
tion. The general characteristics of these yachts 
were a liberal amount of displacement disposed 
according to the wave form theory of John Hys- 
lop ; a fairly full midship section with round bilge 
(in the keel and the deeper centre-board boats this 
section being of S form) ; an outside keel into 
which was built most of the ballast ; and a rather 
fine bow, with a moderate amount of hollow in 
the forward water-lines of the wider boats, this 
hollow decreasing in the narrower yachts. In the 
British yachts of the same period, owing to the 
extremely limited breadth, designers had, almost 
as a matter of course, resorted to a full, convex 
water-line forward. 

While the straight, plumb stem was seen on 
some of the yachts of the sloop era, the fashion 



214 American Yachting 

of the day through the seventies was for the 
" clipper stem," — a small amount of forward over- 
hang, made up almost entirely of false work, dead- 
wood, and ornamentation, and in no essential 
particular different in effect from the plumb stem. 
With the advent of the first cutters the plumb 
stem, either perfectly straight or with a very 
slight round, came into fashion in this country, 
being a distinguishing feature of Mischief, Pris- 
cilla, Puritan, Mayflower, Papoose, and their 
contemporaries, as well as of Genes ta and Galatea, 
The " clipper stem," or " fiddle bow," was gen- 
erally used on schooner yachts in England ; but 
the plumb stem was so nearly universal for all 
cutters that something of a sensation was created 
when, in 1880, Robert Hewett, an amateur, brought 
out the lo-tonner Buttercup with a clipper stem, 
which was soon known as the " Buttercup bow." 
In making his radical departure from the conven- 
tional cutter lines in designing Thistle, in 1886, 
Mr. Watson gave her a clipper stem which was 
more than a mere ornament, actually carrying out 
the deck line and the upper portion of the stem. 
Volunteer, designed a little later, had also what 
was called a clipper stem, but it gave practically 
no added length on deck. The centre-board cutter 



Heiresbojf and Gloriana 215 

Titania, designed by Burgess in 1887, had a plumb 
stem ; but her classmate Katrina, designed by 
Cary Smith, in 1888, had the same bow as Thistle, 

After the lead of Thistle the clipper stem be- 
came common on British cutters, but the Burgess 
boats were divided between the plumb and the 
clipper stem, the latter when used being very 
short and little more than an ornament. 

All the new 46-footers designed in the winter 
of 1 890- 1 89 1 had this short clipper stem, with a 
slightly hollow water-line forward and a decided 
forefoot, though the fore end of the keel was well 
rockered up. 

About the close of the Civil War a small boat- 
shop was started at Bristol, Rhode Island, by 
John B. Herreshoff, one of a large family of boys 
and girls, grandchildren of Frederick Herreshoff, 
a Prussian engineer, who settled in Rhode Island 
in 1790. A blindness, apparently hereditary, af- 
flicted several members of the family, and when 
still a young boy John B. Herreshoff by degrees 
lost his sight. Living on the beautiful waters 
at the head of Narragansett Bay, he was already 
a skilful boat sailor, and in spite of his affliction 
he continued sailing and racing, his younger 
brother Nathaniel Greene Herreshoff, born in 



2i6 American Yachting 

1848, going with him and acting as lookout. 
The loss of sight merely served to develop to a 
most remarkable degree the other senses, and as 
a young man John Herreshoif was accustomed 
to work at the bench, making repairs on his boats ; 
and in time, while his brother was a student of 
engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of 
Technology, he started to model and build yachts 
as a regular business. 

While following the centre-board type, the 
Herreshoff models were deeper and abler than 
the New York boats, and of better form through- 
out; and they soon became famous between 
Bristol and Boston. Most of the yachtsmen who 
have been prominent in recent years in Boston 
yachting were practically cradled in small sloops 
and cat-boats modelled and built by John B. Her- 
reshoff at this time. After graduation Nathaniel 
spent several years with the Corliss Engine Works 
in Providence, having charge of the erection of 
the large Corliss engine which was a notable fea- 
ture of the Centennial Exhibition of 1876. About 
this time the two brothers became interested in 
steam, and under the name of the Herreshoff 
Manufacturing Company they turned out the 
fastest launches of the day and some of the first 



Herresboff and Gloriana 217 

torpedo-boats, by degrees working into larger 
steam yachts. Occasionally a small sailing yacht 
was built to order, and " Nat " Herreshoff always 
had a yacht for his own use, but the main effort 
was concentrated on steam craft. In 1887 the 
Herreshoff catamaran made its appearance in 
New York Harbor, showing a wonderful speed, 
and making the type popular for a few years. 

In 1883 Mr. Herreshoff built for himself a 
sturdy little cruising cutter, Consuelo, of 28 feet 
6 inches water-line, 8 feet 8 inches breadth, and 
5 feet 6 inches draft, with lead keel, rigged as a 
" cat yawl," and fitted with many curious con- 
trivances of his own invention. Other small ex- 
perimental keel boats followed from time to time, 
until in 1890 he produced two that were notable 
departures from all existing practice. Both of 
them were derived from a very close study of 
Minerva, but she was only the starting-point for 
Mr. Herreshoff's original ideas. When the for- 
mation of the 46-foot class became a certainty, he 
submitted to E. D. Morgan, the owner of one of 
the experimental boats, a design from which was 
built the noted Gloriana, 

To the eye, the most notable feature of this 
yacht, which jumped at once to the top of the 



2i8 American Yachting 

class and held the first place through the season, 
was the great over-all length and the peculiar for- 
ward overhang; but these details were largely 
superficial. In the furor created by the press 
over the " Gloriana bow," no one took the trouble 




Gloriana. 

to study, as it deserved, this most remarkable 
design. 

Gloriana was built to race under the " length- 
and-sail-area " rule then in general use, with a 
classification by water-line length, and an allow- 
ance of time for measurement by water-line and 
the square root of the sail area, — conditions which 
induced a large hull on a short measured water- 
line, with a large sail plan carried by virtue of 
breadth, draft, and ballast. With a moderate 
breadth, 13 feet, and a draft of 10 feet 2 inches, 
the midship section was of the S form, but with 
more hollow, giving less area, and consequently 



Herresboff and Gloriana 219 

less displacement for the dimensions, than in such 
a yacht as Minerva, The fine fore end of the 
water-line and the forefoot just beneath it that 
characterized the yachts of the time were boldly 
cut away, with several good results. The actual 
measured length was reduced by several feet, the 
area of wetted surface was also reduced, and the 
area of water-line plane was increased in propor- 
tion to its length, giving great stability whether 
upright or heeled. 

All the early yachts were built with straight 
keels, from which the stem rose at almost a right 
angle, the draft at the fore end of the keel being 
almost as great as at the after end. This " fore- 
foot," as it was called, was considered essential 
at first, but by degrees it was cut away. It was 
in evidence in a degree in Genesta and Galatea^ 
but in Thistle and Minerva it was inconspicuous, 
the outline approaching a triangle rather than a 
rectangle. Mr. Herreshoff decided that this 
suppression of the forefoot, and the fine wedge- 
like end of the water-line, could be carried to a 
much greater extreme with a marked advantage 
in reducing the measured length, and no disad- 
vantage in the blunter form of entrance, provided 
the work was skilfully executed. As an accidental 



220 American Yachting 

feature of this cutting away, rather than as an 
essential point of design, the forward overhang 
was for the time of extraordinary length. 

Apart from its special features, the whole form 
of the boat betrayed the skill of which additional 
evidence has since been given in abundance. All 
the fore-and-aft lines, the diagonals and dividing 
lines, were fair and true, with no hollows, follow- 
ing the practice of George Steers ; and the whole 
form was so moulded tljat when heeling in 
smooth water or pitching and scending in a sea, 
its general character remained unchanged. The 
different level lines of the bow, below and above 
water, had approximately the same angle of 
entrance, in place of being exceedingly fine below, 
and very full at the deck. 

An important factor in Glorianas success was 
her construction. The new Burgess 46-footers, 
intended to be much lighter in proportion than 
the 40-footers, proved failures in the matter of 
construction, being heavy and not over strong, 
with a single skin of yellow pine, caulked, and 
steel frames. Gloriana was built after a semi- 
composite system perfected in the Herreshoff 
steam yachts years before, with steel frames and 
planking in two thicknesses, with no caulking, 



Henesbojf and Gloriana 221 

each outer strake being carefully fitted and laid 
in white lead, making a surface almost without 
seams. The sail plan was large, measuring 4100 
square feet, or 100 feet more than Mischief, of 
61 feet water-line; and it was cleverly planned, 
while the mechanical points of the rig were care- 
fully worked out. 

From keel to truck Gloria7ta was a masterpiece 
of original thought, careful selection of elements, 
and attention to minute detail ; and the wisdom 
and perspicacity of both practical yachtsmen and 
of expert yachting writers was never better ex- 
emplified than when they one and all refused to 
see anything to her but the over-all length and 
the point of the fore overhang. Just as British 
yachtsmen forty years before had servilely imi- 
tated the hollow bow of the America and the 
absurd rake of her masts, the yachtsmen of 1892 
set to work to increase the speed of their yachts 
by means of added length on deck and long 
pointed bows, overlooking the true essentials. 

So far from being exhausted by the production 
of Gloriana, the busy brain of her designer was 
at work through the summer following; and in 
the fall of 1 89 1 he launched a small experimental 
yacht for his own use. Dilemma, as she was 



222 



American Yachting 



aptly named, was practically a wide canoe with 
long overhangs, her length over all being 38 feet 
on a water-line of but 26 feet; her breadth was 7 




Herreshoff Fin Keel, 1892. 



feet, and the draft of the hull a little over a foot. 
On these dimensions it was possible to obtain the 
same long, easy lines that characterized Gloriana. 



Hemsboff and Gloriana 223 

The most remarkable feature, however, was the 
keel, — a rectangular plate of steel, to the lower 
edge of which were bolted the two halves of a cigar- 
shaped bulb of lead weighing two tons. This 
" fin keel," as it was called, was secured to the 
oak keel of the boat by means of two angle irons 
and bolts. This new craft carried to a much 
greater extreme one of the essential features of 
Gloria7ia, — breadth as an element of power, depth 
as another element of power in the length of 
lever through which the lead keel acted, and with 
these a small area of midship section. The little 
craft showed exceptional speed on trial, and from 
her sprang yachts of all sizes, cruisers and racers, 
whose number it would be impossible to estimate. 
The advent of Gloriana created as great an 
excitement as that of Puritan, and her influence 
on design was ultimately as widespread, affecting 
both sides of the Atlantic. Before the season's 
racing was well under way Mr. Burgess was 
attacked by typhoid fever, the result of contin- 
ued application to his profession, and he died on 
July 12, at the age of forty-three. Through his 
illness he was spared the knowledge of the fail- 
ure of his new boats, and the advent of Mr. Her- 
reshoff in the field of sailing yachts. 



2 24 American Yachting 

In 1892 a new Herreshoff 46-footer, Wasp, was 
launched for Archibald Rogers, former owner of 
Bedouin, with Captain Charles Barr in command. 
She was larger and more powerful, with some 
changes of form, but the same essentials ; care- 
fully designed to the limit of existing rules, she 
not only won in her first seasons, but held a 
prominent place in racing for a number of years. 

In the fall of the same year an order was 
placed with the Herreshoff s for Navahoe, a steel 
racing cutter of 84 feet water-line, by Royal 
Phelps Carroll. Following the general plan of 
Gloria7ia, the fore-and-aft lines were carried out 
into long overhangs, the length on deck being 
123 feet, with a breadth of 23 feet 6 inches and 
a draft of a little over 12 feet. The hull was of 
steel, with a steel trunk for the centre-board, and 
the ballast was all cast in the keel trough. After 
the first trials of the yacht in the early spring, 
she was placed on a dry-dock at Providence, and 
at a heavy expense to her owner this lead was 
cut out and transferred to the outside of the keel, 
increasing the draft by over a foot. Later in 
the season she crossed the Atlantic and raced 
against the new Britannia, Valkyrie II, Satania, 
and Calluna with rather poor success. 



CHAPTER XV 

THE DUNRAVEN CHALLENGES 

Wyndham Thomas Wyndam Quin, fourth 
Earl of Dunraven, was born at Adare Abbey, 
Ireland, in 1841, and educated at Christ Church, 
Oxford, entering the First Life Guards in 1865. 
Two years later he acted as war correspondent 
for the Daily Telegraph, of London, during the 
Abyssinian campaign ; and later he did the same 
work during the Franco-Prussian war. In 1871 
he succeeded to the title, and later he served as 
Under-Secretary for the Colonies under the two 
administrations of Lord Salisbury. In 1887 ^"^^ 
resigned his ofifice, being dissatisfied with the 
preferment accorded to him, and in the fall of 
the same year he placed an order for his first 
yacht, the cutter Petroiiilla, 85 tons, designed by 
A. Richardson and built by J. G. Fay & Son, 
at Southampton. She was raced in 1888 with 
poor success, and in the fall he placed an order 
with Mr. Watson for a larger cutter, of 70 feet 
water-line, Valkyrie /. 

Q 225 



2 26 American Yachting 

Very early in his yachting career Lord Dun- 
raven cast his eyes upon the America Cup, then 
practically locked up by the New Deed of Gift 
and the resolve of British clubs that they would 
not challenge under it. Early in 1889 he began 
negotiations through the Royal Yacht Squad- 
ron for a match, and the matter progressed so 
far that the New York Yacht Club offered to 
make certain terms with him, provided that the 
Cup, if won, should be held by the Squadron 
strictly under the new deed. This the Squad- 
ron positively refused to accede to, and the sub- 
ject was dropped for the time. 

As the 70-foot class was then at its best, with 
Katrina^ Titania^ and Shamrock — the wooden 
centre-board cutter — all racing, many American 
yachtsmen favored the idea of a positive accept- 
ance of a challenge from a 70-footer; but Mr. 
Burgess and others very prominent in yachting 
insisted that a challenger, no matter how small, 
should only be met with the largest and fast- 
est yacht which could be put against her, — this 
being at the time Volunteer. After correspond- 
ence back and forth at intervals, an agreement 
was finally reached late in 1892 by which the 
Royal Yacht Squadron, acting for Lord Dun- 



The Diinmven Challenges 



227 



raven, was allowed to challenge, giving only the 
water-line length of the yacht, in return being 
granted what had been asked by and denied to 
each previous challenger with the exception of 
Mr. Ashbury in 1871, — a series of three out 
of five races. The subject of the new deed was 
not directly mentioned, but it was understood 
by the New York Yacht Club that it was still 




Valkyrie II. 

in force, and recognized as the only legal state- 
ment of the trust ; while the Royal Yacht Squad- 
ron, on its side, ignored it, and agreed only to 
hold the Cup, if won, under the actual terms of 
the match, the challenge naming only the water- 
line, with a penalty if it were exceeded, and the 
series including five races on the open sea. 

As it was plain that the defence would rely 
upon a 90-footer, however small the challenger 
might be, the length of the new yacht ordered of 



2 28 American Yachting 

Mr. Watson, Valkyrie II, was given as 85 feet. 
Apart from the revolution effected by Gloriana, 
Volunteer was now out of date, and preparations 
were made for a new class of Cup defenders. 
As soon as the details were finally arranged, a syn- 
dicate was made up within the New York Yacht 
Club, including Archibald Rogers, F. W. Vander- 
bilt, W. K. Vanderbilt, F. Augustus Schermer- 
horn, J. Pierpont Morgan, and John E. Brooks, 
and a carte blanche order was placed with the 
Herreshoff Manufacturing Company for a Cup 
defender of 85 feet water-line, all dimensions 
and details being left to the builders. The yacht 
when launched was named Colonia, and Captain 
"Hank" Haff was selected to sail her. 

John B. Paine, a son of General Paine and an 
amateur designer and racing man, also designed 
a fin keel. Jubilee, built of steel by Lawley & Son 
for General Paine. The successors of Mr. Burgess, 
Stewart & Binney, organized another syndicate 
of Boston yachtsmen and built a more extreme 
fin keel, Pilgrim. After the work was well 
begun on Colonia a second New York syndicate 
was formed, including C. Oliver Iselin, E. D. 
Morgan, Oliver H. P. Belmont, August Belmont, 
Cornelius Vanderbilt, Charles R. Flint, Chester 



The Dun raven Challenges 



229 



W. Chapin, George C. Clark, Henry Astor Carey, 
W. Barton Hopkins, and E. M. Fulton, Jr., and 
a second yacht was ordered from the Herre- 
shoffs, the name of Vigilant being selected for 
her. 

Colonia was to be a keel boat, with steel hull ; 
and as the draft of water outside the Bristol 
shops was limited, she was designed to draw but 




Vigilant 

fourteen feet. The second syndicate decided on 
a deep centre-board boat, and at the same time 
placed an order with the makers of Tobin bronze, 
a very strong alloy, for an exclusive supply of this 
metal. As the demand for it was then limited, 
the first syndicate, though desirous of substituting 
bronze for steel in the plating of Coloftia after the 
plans of the second syndicate were made known, 
was unable to do so. 

The racing of these four big cutters throughout 
the season, ending in the formal trial races, fur- 



230 American Yachting 

nished good sport for the participants and enlisted 
the interest of yachtsmen throughout the world, 
the contests for the America Cup having long 
since ceased to be local either to New York or 
the yachting system of the Atlantic states. The 
results may be briefly summarized as follows : — 
Colo7tia, under the able management of Mr. 
Rogers as " managing owner," — a new term then 
in yachting, — and of Captain Haff , showed every 
evidence of speed except to windward, where she 
was crippled by her lack of lateral plane. She 
was in many ways an enlarged Wasp ; but while 
the draft of that famous boat was 24 per cent of 
her water-line length, the corresponding propor- 
tion in Colonia was but 16 per cent. In addition 
to this she, in company with Pilgrim and Jubilee, 
was handicapped by the serious defect of steel 
plating, — the rough scale produced in rolling, and 
which can only be removed by continual rusting 
and cleaning. Until the advent of Shamrock III, 
in 1903, with a nickel steel bottom covered with 
a hard, smooth coat of enamel, all iron and steel 
vessels have suffered in this way through their first 
season, as it is only after some months of immer- 
sion, and frequent scraping and painting, that it 
is possible to obtain a smooth surface which will 



Tbe Dun raven Challenges 231 

retain paint. Mr. Herreshoff, when appealed to 
personally by the members of this powerful 
syndicate, was busy with Vigilant and took no 
measures for the deepening of Colonias keel, and 
she went into the trial races after some rather 
crude botch work on a dry-dock in New York. 
The true merits of her hull model were fully 
demonstrated several years later when, under the 
superintendence of Cary Smith, a centre-board 
was added at heavy expense and she was altered 
to the schooner rig. Sailed by Captain Charles 
Barr, she was for several years the head of her 
new class. 

Vigilant, with C. Oliver Iselin as " managing 
owner" and Captain William Hansen as skipper, 
proved easily the best of the four, and was chosen 
to defend the Cup ; in fact, she was the only one 
of the four radical experiments of the year which 
can be classed as other than a failure. She had 
some serious defects. Her centre of effort was 
abnormally far forward, and she steered very 
badly, while her weighted centre-board of four 
tons gave her much trouble, being jammed and 
even lost entirely at different times in her subse- 
quent career. She had, however, many strong 
points. Up to this time there had existed no 



2 32 American Yachting 

restriction upon the number of crew carried in 
the large cutters, American and EngKsh, the con- 
sideration of useless weight on deck as compared 
with lead in the keel impelling the use of only 
such a number as was required for the effective 
handling of the sails, — some fifty odd. Taking 
advantage of this fact. Vigilant was designed 
with an excessive breadth of deck, — 26 feet 3 
inches, as compared with 24 feet in Colonia, 23 
feet in Pilgrim, and 22 feet 6 inches in Jubilee, 
Following the fashion of the old sand-bag racers 
in which Mr. Iselin did his first yachting, she car- 
ried a crew of seventy, which, lying out on the 
long lever afforded by the wide deck, gave her a 
great advantage over the lighter crews and nar- 
rower decks of her classmates and of the chal- 
lenger. It may be said here, that one of the 
conditions absolutely insisted on by subsequent 
challengers was the measurement of the yachts 
with the same number of persons on board as 
were regularly carried in the races, thus prevent- 
ing the use of the crew as ballast. In the matter 
of surface, the polished bronze, used for the first 
time in yachting, gave her a great advantage, 
especially in light weather, over the rough steel 
of the American boats and the coppered wooden 
bottom of Valkyrie II. 



Tbe Dunraven Challenges 233 

Jubilee was a combination of fin keel and cen- 
tre-board, a ballasted board working through the 
centre of the steel fin, which, with its lead bulb, 
drew 13 feet 9 inches. In addition she had a 
smaller centre-board in the bow, to be used if 
required. Her sail plan was crude, with the 
mast stepped too far aft and very faulty details, 
including blocks of aluminum, which proved 
weak and useless. Skippered by John Barr, she 
gave occasional evidences of speed, but on the 
whole was a failure. 

Pilgrim was an extreme fin, with less depth of 
body than Jubilee, finer fore-and-aft lines, and a 
draft of 22 feet 6 inches to the bottom of her 
bulb. She possessed in an exaggerated degree 
the initial faults of the type, steering very badly, 
and being at times absolutely unmanageable. 
Her skipper, " Dicky " Sherlock, was a very able 
racing man, and she had a good crew, among her 
Corinthians being Mr. Stewart, her designer, and 
Messrs. Adams ; but she was a failure. After the 
races she was sold, her fin removed, and with 
other changes she was converted into a very 
good steam yacht. 

Valkyrie II was a keel cutter of composite 
construction, 4 inches longer on the water-line 



234 American Yachting 

than Vigilant, 4 feet narrower, and drawing 
but 3 feet more to the bottom of her keel, 
taking no account of Vigilmtfs centre-board, 
which dropped to about 22 feet. Her sail area 
was 10,042 square feet as compared with 11,272 
of Vigilant Her skipper, Captain William Cran- 
field, stood very high in his class in England, and 
did some clever work in the Cup races in starting 
and manoeuvring; but on the whole both skip- 
per and crew were greatly outclassed by the 
defenders. 

The first attempt at a race, on October 5, failed 
for lack of wind ; on October 7, in a light and 
rather fluky breeze. Vigilant won by 5 minutes 
48 seconds, corrected time. Two days later, over 
the 30-mile triangle, in a stronger breeze and 
smooth water, the wind freshening considerably 
during the race. Vigilant won by 10 minutes 35 
seconds, corrected time, though she sprung her 
bowsprit on the second leg. Another attempt 
failed for lack of wind, but on October 13 there 
was a strong easterly breeze and a rising sea out- 
side the Hook, while the weather predictions gave 
warning of a heavy gale moving rapidly up the 
coast. This prediction was not verified, but the 
breeze freshened all day, blowing very hard toward 



Tbe Diuiraven Challenges 235 

the end of the race, though it fell at night. Val- 
kyrie had increased her ballast on October 10, 
making her water-line 85.96 feet. Both started 
with jib-headed topsails over reefed mainsails, Val- 
kyries reef being a small one. The course was 
fifteen miles to windward ; and after two hours of 
hard sailing, in which Valkyrie was very skilfully 
handled, she led around the outer mark by two 
minutes. In setting her spinnaker after the Eng- 
lish fashion, the sail in a loose bunch being 
hoisted from below deck and sheeted home as 
quickly as possible, it caught on the bitts and was 
torn a little. Running in a sea and heavy wind 
this tear soon increased until the sail went into 
tatters. Another, a large and beautiful sail of 
light fabric, was set in its place, the work being 
done veiy smartly, but it was too light for such 
a breeze, and it soon went to pieces. Nothing 
daunted, the " bowsprit spinnaker," corresponding 
to the American balloon jib-topsail but smaller, 
was set as the last resort. 

On board Valkyrie no attempt was made to 
shake out the reef in the mainsail or to shift top- 
sails ; but as soon as Vigilant was off the wind, 
and her spinnaker, sent up in stops in a long, com- 
pact rope, was broken out and sheeted home, 



236 American Yachting 

the real work of the day began. Her balloon jib- 
topsail fouled in hoisting, and a man was sent to 
the topmast-head, and thence halfway down the 
topmast-stay, to clear the sail. After this was 
done a man was sent out along the boom, with a 
life-line from the masthead about his body, cut- 
ting the reef -points as he went ; meanwhile a man 
at the topmast-head was lashing the working top- 
sail, clearing the topsail-halyard and sending it 
down to the deck, while another man at the gaff 
end was doing the same with the topsail sheet. 
With the working topsail still in place, the whole 
mainsail was shaken out, the halyards sweated up, 
and the small club-topsail was sent aloft. By 
dint of this work, such as was never before wit- 
nessed in yachting, at the imminent danger of 
losing the mast and the race, Vigilant sailed past 
Valkyrie near the finish line and led her across 
by over two minutes, finally winning by forty 
seconds, corrected time. 

By special agreement, at the request of Lord 
Dunraven, the one-gun start was adopted for 
these races, according to the universal custom in 
Great Britain, and what had then become an 
almost universal custom in this country. Vigi- 
lant was steered during a great part of the time 



The Dunmven Cballenges 237 

by N. G. Herreshoff himself, — something rather 
exceptional in Cup racing. 

Undaunted by this defeat, Lord Dunraven chal- 
lenged again in December 1894, and another match 
was made on much the same terms, except that 
the New York Yacht Club positively declined to 
repeat the one-gun start, standing out for an inter- 
val of two minutes during which the yachts might 
cross, their true time of crossing being taken. 

Early in 1894 Vigilant was sold to George J. 
and Howard Gould, and with Captain Haff in 
command she was sent across the ocean, Mr. 
Herreshoff joining her on the Clyde and sailing 
in some of the races. One of the most important 
events of the year was the sinking of Valkyrie II 
in a collision with Satanita in the first race of the 
90-foot class on the Clyde, thus preventing any 
trial of the old opponents under British condi- 
tions. There was, however, the sister cutter, 
Britannia, owned by the Prince of Wales and 
commanded by Captain John Carter of Genesta ; 
the Fife cutter Calluna ; and the Soper cutter 
Satania, — all of Vigilant s class. Britannia has 
proved, on the whole, one of the most successful 
and notable yachts in British history, but the 
other two were virtually failures. 



238 American Yachting 

Vigilant had been improved by alterations to 
her rig and ballast, and she was in competent 
hands, but in seventeen races with Britannia the 
latter won twelve times. Vigilant was the faster 
through the water in a strong breeze, but she was 
greatly inferior in manoeuvring power and quick- 
ness of turning. 

The result of this racing was seen in the next 
Cup contestants, — the challenger, Valkyrie III, 
designed by Watson, and the defender. Defender, 
designed and built by the Herreshoffs. Valky- 
rie III, owned by Lord Dunraven, Lord Lons- 
dale, Lord Wolverton, and Captain H. Le B. 
McCalmont, was given a breadth of 26 feet 2 
inches on a water-line of %% feet 10 inches, with 
a draft of 20 feet. With increased draft her 
keel was longer and straighter than that of her 
predecessor, giving increased lateral plane for the 
added power, and also lowering the ballast, to the 
same end. She was virtually a wide, saucer- 
shaped body with a deep fin, following the gen- 
eral idea of Vigilant, the design being excellently 
adapted to the average conditions of match racing 
outside Sandy Hook. She was of composite con- 
struction, but the wood planking was not cop- 
pered, being coated with a preparation of tar, 
giving a smooth, hard surface. 



The Dunraven Challenges 239 

In Defender Mr. Herreshoff abandoned all sug- 
gestion of Vigilant, making her a keel cutter of 
very moderate breadth, but 23 feet, on a water- 
line of Z'^ feet 5^ inches. Her draft was 19 feet, 
or 5 feet more than the keel Colonia, and her 
keel was shorter and more rockered, following the 
example of Britmmia, with a view to much 
quicker manoeuvring than was possible with 
Vigilant, Her construction was still more elabo- 
rate than that of Vigilant: steel frames were used 
for the main members, with manganese bronze — 
another expensive alloy — for the bottom plating; 
but the deck beams, straps, and much of the inte- 
rior bracing, with all the plating of the topsides, 
were of aluminum, the first use of this new metal 
in a yacht of any size. The sail area was 13,500 
square feet, or 400 square feet less than that of 
Valkyrie III, 

Vigilant was further altered and refitted by 
George J. Gould, and with Captain Charles Barr 
at the wheel, sailed against Defender through the 
season, the latter handled by Mr. Iselin, who joined 
with W. K. Vanderbilt and E. D. Morgan in build- 
ing her, with Captain " Hank " Haff as skipper. 
There was much friction and ill-feeling between 
the two parties, and protests were frequent. In 



240 American Yachting 

the trial races Defender developed serious struc- 
tural defects, in particular about the mast step, 
which at one time was in danger of going 
through the bottom of the boat ; but these were 
successfully remedied, and she was selected to 
defend the Cup. 

The first race, fifteen miles to windward and 
return, was sailed under conditions which of old 
would have insured the victory of the cutter 
against the sloop, — an " old sea," from the east- 
ward, and light and fluky wind. This time the 
defender was relatively the cutter, with her 
moderate breadth, comparatively deep body, com- 
pact form, and decided angle of heel ; while the 
challenger, like the old sloop, was wide and com- 
paratively shoal, standing up straight, and being 
knocked about by the sea without wind enough 
to steady her and put her to a good sailing angle. 
Under these discouraging conditions, evident 
from the start, she was not sailed as well as 
Defender, and the latter won by over seven 
minutes. 

After the finish Lord Dunraven made a com- 
plaint to the Cup committee that Deferider was 
immersed below the water-line officially measured 
and marked, and as a result she was remeasured 



Tbe Diinraven Challenges 241 

and found to be of the correct length. The matter 
was apparently dropped ; but, dissatisfied with the 
failure to investigate the question of possible tam- 
pering with the ballast between the two measure- 
ments, Lord Dunraven renewed his charges on 
his return to England, the result being an inter- 
national quarrel of serious magnitude. A thor- 
ough investigation of the whole matter by the 
New York Yacht Club during the following 
winter, Lord Dunraven visiting New York to 
give his testimony, failed to establish any reason- 
able ground for the charges. 

This matter temporarily disposed of, the second 
race was started on September 10, over the tri- 
angular course, in a moderate breeze and smooth 
water. Within the last few seconds before the 
starting-gun a foul occurred between the two 
yachts, Valkyrie being to windward and her 
boom end catching the starboard topmast-shroud 
of Defender and tearing it from the broken end 
of the spreader. While Defe^tder was com- 
pelled to luff up, being handicapped by over a 
minute, Valkyrie continued the race. Under the 
circumstances — Defe^ider, though her topmast 
stood, being crippled for the day on starboard 
tack — the race was most exciting. Valkyrie held 



242 American Yachting 

her lead over the course, and finally won by 
forty-seven seconds, corrected time. Sailing the 
triangle with all marks to port, Defender was at a 
serious disadvantage, not only on the first leg to 
windward, but over the whole of the second leg, 
ten miles on the starboard tack, only a small jib- 
topsail being set. On this leg, however, her 
sheets were trimmed to much greater advantage, 
as has almost invariably been the case on the 
defending yachts in reaching in the Cup races of 
modern days. 

A protest on the part of Defender ^-^^ sustained 
by the regatta committee after a hearing of both 
sides, the general opinion being that this was the 
correct verdict. The first cause of the foul was 
the crowding of the fleet of pleasure steamers, 
notably the Yorktown, a large coasting steamer 
which lay close to the course. All the evidence, 
including many important photographs, showed 
that Valkyrie took the active part in the prelimi- 
nary manoeuvres, chasing Defender around the 
Yorktown ; and, as the two came within view of 
the line, finding herself in a very limited space 
between Defender to leeward and the commit- 
tee boat to windward, with more time than 
she wanted, she bore away. Defender meanwhile 



Tbe Diinraven Challenges 243 

holding her course on the wind ; and as she came 
dangerously close to Defender, she luffed quickly. 
The justice of this decision has been very gener- 
ally accepted by yachtsmen. 

In the writer's opinion the accident was due 
to the fact that Captain Sycamore, a very able 
British skipper who came out to steer the yacht, 
under Captain Cranfield, had for several seasons 
sailed Corsair and Vendetta, — 40-raters similar 
to Queen Mad, both with small sail plans, but 
4000 square feet on 60 feet of water-line, or about 
the same as Wasp on 46 feet. In these boats the 
boom extended but a short distance over the 
counter, and they could be manoeuvred safely 
in very close quarters. With a boom of 105 feet, 
or nearly 120 per cent of her water-line length, 
extending far outside of her long counter, Valky- 
rie III required a much greater space for manoeu- 
vring. Captain Sycamore had sailed the yacht 
only three or four times in competition with other 
vessels, and in the excitement of the close start 
he failed to realize that a manoeuvre which would 
be perfectly safe in a fleet of 40-raters was 
extremely dangerous when two Cup yachts of 
unlimited sail area were involved. 

Mr. Iselin personally offered on behalf of De- 



244 American Yachting 

fender s owners to call the race off and resail it ; 
but to this Lord Dunraven would not consent, 
apparently accepting the decision of the com- 
mittee awarding the second race to Defender, 
Immediately after the finish of this race he had 
written to the committee declining to start again 
unless a perfectly clear course could be had ; but 
after two days of negotiation the third race was 
started on September 12. The day was clear, 
with a smooth sea and a good breeze, the normal 
conditions for which Valkyrie had been designed, 
this being the best opportunity thus far afforded 
to show her speed. So much had been said and 
printed about the obstruction on the part of the 
attendant fleet that all vessels were at a distance 
from the starting-line. The two yachts came out 
as usual, with everything in readiness for the 
start. Defender crossed the line on the gun, 
Valkyrie following slowly. When clear of the 
line the latter turned, her racing flag was hauled 
down and the burgee of the New York Yacht 
Club, of which Lord Dunraven was an honorary 
member, was set in its place, and she headed for 
New York, leaving Defe7tder to sail the course 
alone, thus completing the series of three wins. 
After his return to England, Lord Dunraven 



The Dunraveri Challenges 245 

issued a pamphlet with his report of the match, 
in which he charged that Defender was ballasted 
below her measured water-line in the race of 
September 7. As soon as these charges were 
known in New York, Mr. Iselin wrote to the 
club demanding a full investigation. A meeting 
was immediately held, and Commodore Edward 
M. Brown appointed as a special committee 
Messrs. J. Pierpont Morgan, William C. Whitney, 
and George L. Rives. This committee, acting 
under the liberal power intrusted to it, invited 
the aid of Captain Alfred T. Mahan, U.S.N., 
and Edward J. Phelps, former minister to Eng- 
land, — both men well known and highly esteemed 
abroad. 

This committee of five instituted a thorough 
and searching inquiry, held at the New York 
Yacht Club house in New York, Lord Dunraven 
coming over to give testimony, while many wit- 
nesses were examined. The result was the com- 
plete exoneration of Mr. Iselin and all connected 
with Defender, As no apology was offered by 
Lord Dunraven after he had failed to sustain his 
charges, he was expelled from the club, — a tardy 
resignation reaching New York only after this 
action had been taken. The very sensible and 



246 American Yachting 

businesslike action of Commodore Brown, in 
furthering a public investigation, and the high 
character of the men chosen by him to conduct it, 
resulted in permanently settling what might have 
been a serious international misunderstanding. 

The action of Lord Dunraven in issuing his 
pamphlet was never indorsed by British yachts- 
men, nor have they ever indicated their pride 
in him as a representative of British sporting 
usage. If report be true, his abrupt withdrawal 
from international racing was but a repetition of 
his previous leave-taking of journalism and later 
of politics. It is worthy of note that he was the 
first challenger who was ever permitted to make 
a match by mutual agreement on terms perfectly 
fair to both parties, obtaining freely much more 
than had been refused to such good sportsmen as 
Sir Richard Sutton and Lieutenant Henn. 



CHAPTER XVI 




T"C3<>„I! 



SMALL YACHTING AND THE SEAWANHAKA CUP 

It is possible to fix 
with approximate accu- 
racy the origin of yachts 
of large size and of 
yacht racing, but it is 
impossible to trace back 
the similar stage of devel- 
opment in small yachts 
Spruce IV. ^nd Sailing boats. In 

First challenger for the Seawanhaka thc Carly dayS thc rOW- 
Cup, 1895. 1 11 -i 1 

boat and small sail-boat 
were the universal vehicles of ferriage and water 
transit over short routes, as that over the Dela- 
ware River at Philadelphia and Trenton, the 
Hudson and East rivers at New York, and 
about the harbor of New York. The hand- 
somely modelled " Whitehall boat," a few sur- 
vivors of which may still be seen about the 
Battery or in use by water-side gentlemen whose 
exact avocations will not bear too close a scrutiny, 

247 



248 American Yachting 

at one time carried the beginning of that traffic 
which now crowds three great bridges and a 
fleet of ferry-boats ; and in addition it was the com- 
mon means of communication between the ship- 
ping of New York and the shore. Speed, under 
oars or the simple spritsail whose mast could be 
shipped or unshipped in a moment, was prized alike 
by the rival ferrymen, the boarding-house runners, 
and the thieves of the water front, as well as by 
their pursuers ; and there were many close races 
in which no starts were timed and no money 
prizes awarded. On the longer routes, the regu- 
lar ferries to Staten Island, and the points on 
Staten Island Sound where the stage routes 
began, the sail was used in preference to the 
sweep in the pirogues, or periaguas; and here, 
again, competition was an element of business 
success. 

There are no records of the date at which men 
first found leisure to neglect the calls of business 
and sail solely for pleasure ; but we have already 
seen that in the early fifties the pleasure cat-boat 
was not only an established institution about 
New York, and Boston as well, but it had made 
its way across the Atlantic. For many years after 
it held the field without a rival, merely varying in 




Seawanhaka International Challenge Trophy for Small Yachts, 1895. 



Small Yacbting 



251 



detail of model in different localities, according to 
the conditions of its environment. On the Dela- 
ware River, at and about Philadelphia, it took a 
most dangerous and vicious form in the "hiker," 
extremely wide and shoal and with an enormous 
rig ; about New York the popular model was but 
little better, though exposed to rougher water on 
the Bay and Long 
Island Sound. The 
only ballast used was 
sand in bags, these 
being piled high on 
the w^eather side when 
on the wind, and 
shifted as promptly as 

possible on each tack ; open " Jib-and-mainsail Boat," with 
their effect in giving Crew and Sandbags to windward. 
. . . New York. 1850 to 1885. 

stability was increased 

by the numerous crew, also to windward. 

The racing of these boats was popular on all the 
waters within fifty miles of New York, matches 
being made for large purses, while the more 
noted skippers were highly esteemed by their 
respective partisans. Though the same type of 
boat prevailed in the races about Boston, there 
were many of much superior model, with increased 




252 American Yachting 

draft of hull and freeboard ; and farther south on 
Cape Cod, where the boats were uged for fishing 
and lobstering, often on the open sea, were found 
the finest of the " cat " family. The rig of these 
crafc was most commonly that from which the 
type took its name, — the " cat " mainsail with no 
jib, — but it was a common thing to shift the mast 
aft, in an extra step, shipping a bowsprit and set- 
ting a jib. Many boats were regularly equipped 
with this double rig, sailing as cat-boats or "jib- 
and-mainsail boats " according to the entries and 
prizes in some particular race. 

The first rival of the cat-boat was the canoe, 
introduced from England to America on the 
formation of the New York Canoe Club in 1871 ; 
prior to this time the ambitious tyro who sought 
to fit himself for racing in decked yachts, or who 
aimed at distinction as a single-hand cruiser, had 
no choice save the unhandy and dangerous cat- 
boat or the Whitehall boat with oars and a sail. 
From its first introduction canoeing proved popu- 
lar in the extreme, enlisting among its votaries 
many young men who have since been famous in 
yachting. In the sailing canoe as it then was, 
and as it continued to be for about fifteen years, 
a man could cruise to a certain rendezvous under 



Small Yachting 253 

sail or paddle, according to the weather, carr}'ing 
his stores, tent, and bedding ; stripping his boat, 
he could enter in both sailing and paddling races. 




Ethelivynn. 
Sail plan. 

and after the meet was over he could cruise 
home. 

In the early eighties, as a result of the larger 
cutter agitation, there came into use about New 
York many small cruisers, in length from fourteen 
feet water-line upward, of the cutter t}''pe, some 



2 54 American Yachting 

very narrow but most of fairly large breadth. In 
Boston the small keel sloop could claim a still 
earlier development. From this time on the 
development of the small yacht followed closely 
that of the large. Mr. Burgess designed many 
small cutters and deep centre-board boats, and a 
little later the fin-keel type was first exploited 
in the very small classes before extending to the 
larger. One notably successful racing class for 
a couple of seasons was the 21 -foot water-line 
class of Massachusetts Bay, formed in 1892, 
with a fine fleet of centre-board sloops, wide 
and narrow, with varying sail spreads, and also 
fin keels. 

By this time the sand-bag cat-boat had virtu- 
ally disappeared from the racing in the East, 
the fastest of the old champions being sold to 
young yachting communities on the small lakes 
of Wisconsin and Minnesota and their places 
being taken by more modern types, the fin keel 
finally being the most numerous. The smallest 
size in general use was the 21 -foot class, next 
to this being the 25-foot. 

As an outgrowth and development of canoe- 
ing, a distinct class of small yachts came into 
general use in England late in the eighties, 



Small Yachting 



255 



increasing very rapidly. The Solent proved a 
healthy nursery for this infant fleet, and it in 
time almost rivalled the popularity of the large 
yachts. A special class of racing men came 
into existence, much time and money being 
devoted to designing, building, and racing yachts 
of one-half, one, and two 
and one-half rating. 

In the spring of 1895 
a member of the New 
York Canoe Club, Will- 
iam Willard Howard, a 
racing canoeist who had 
visited England to meet 
the British canoe sail- 
ors, wrote from London 
to some of his fellow- 
members in New York, stating that J. Arthur 
Brand, of the Minima Yacht Club, would like 
to visit America with his half-rater Spruce III, 
provided any races could be arranged with yachts 
of the same class. At this time no boats of 
the kind existed, but Mr. Howard's letter was 
laid before the Seawanhaka Corinthian Yacht 
Club by several of the recipients, who were 
also members of that club. The idea was first 




F< i<h*U~ 



Ethelwynn. 
First defender of the Seawanhaka Cup. 



256 American Yachting 

indorsed by the race committee and then by 
the club, and in a short time the plans were defi- 
nitely formulated for the establishment of a per- 
manent international challenge cup for small 
yachts. Mr. Brand was notified, and negotia- 
tions were made between the Minima Yacht 
Club, of London, and the Seawanhaka Corinthian 
Yacht Club for a series of three out of five races, 
to be sailed in September on Long Island Sound, 
off the club station at Oyster Bay ; the courses 
to be alternately windward and leeward and tri- 
angular, of twelve nautical miles. The sum of 
#500 was quickly subscribed for the cup, — a very 
handsome piece of silver, — and then the club had 
to consider the question of its defence. 

The half-rater class, by the rating rule then in 
existence (length multiplied by sail area and the 
product divided by 6000), included small yachts, 
largely fin keels, of 15 feet water-line and 200 
square feet of sail. No such class was known in 
America, the nearest approach being some small 
fin-keel cruising boats designed for canoeists ; but 
to meet the foreign visitor six yachts were spe- 
cially designed and built, Ethelwynn, Trilby, Olita, 
Question, F, & R., and L' Indienne, — a seventh, 
Trust Me, entering with these in the trial races. 



Small Yachting 



257 



Olita (centre-board) and Trust Me (fin keel) were 
designed and built by the Herreshoffs, — the most 
costly of the fleet ; but they proved failures in the 
trial races. The boat finally selected, Eihelwynn, 
was designed by W. P. Stephens, of the Seawan- 
haka Corinthian Yacht Club and the New York 
Canoe Club, a shoal centre-board boat of the type 




Etheluynn. 

introduced several years before in England by 
Linton Hope, but adapted to the different rule 
and local conditions; the races being in the 15- 
foot class under the Seawanahaka rule, — the 
length (15 feet) added to the square root of 
the sail area (225 square feet) and divided by 2, 
giving the measurement. 

Ethelwynn was hastily designed and built, and 
but little time remained for preparation before the 
trial races ; but she proved easily the best all-round 
boat, and there was no question as to the pro- 



25^ 



American Yachting 



priety of her selection. She met Spruce /V, 3. 
new boat specially built for the match — at the end 
of September, after the Valkyrie-Defender match; 
and after a prolonged series of trials lasting for a 




Glencaim I. 
Sail plan. 

whole week, she won three races to two of Spruce, 
thus retaining the cup. The last race had hardly 
finished when a telegram w^as received at Oyster 
Bay from the Royal St. Lawrence Yacht Club of 
Montreal, Canada, announcing that club's wish to 



Small Yacht hig 259 

challenge for the cup ; and as this was confirmed 
by letter, the arrangements were soon made for a 
match in 1896. 

The half-rater, or 15-footer, — the terms being al- 
most synonymous, — was unknown in Canada ; but 
the club, its challenge being accepted, went bravely 
to work to provide a fleet. Most of the new 
yachts were designed by two amateurs, G. Her- 
rick Duggan and F. P. Shearwood, old canoeists 
and yachtsmen, engineers by profession, associated 
with the Dominion Bridge Company. About six- 
teen boats were built during the winter and tried 
during the early spring and summer, the best of 
them — Mr. Duggan 's Glencair^i, sailed by himself 
and Mr. Shearwood — being selected as the chal- 
lenger. The defence was equally busy, and 
twenty-seven boats, nearly all of them specially 
built for the purpose, started in the first trial race 
at Oyster Bay. 

The winning boat. El Heirie, was designed by 
a young amateur, who also sailed her, — Clinton 
H. Crane. Like most of her class, she had nearly 
15 feet of water-line length, with a little over 200 
square feet of sail ; but the challenger was of very 
different form, of greater breadth, with about the 
same over-all length, but with a water-line which 



26o 



American Yachting 



measured but 12 feet 6 inches, thus allowing her 
under the rule to carry nearly 300 square feet of 
sail. There was no doubt in the minds of the 
defenders as to which of the two would win ; but 
after races in both light and heavy weather, one 
in a thunder squall, Glencairn proved her all- 









/ 


- — 1 


— -i 





__ 


— — -__^ 




^ 









-~^iir~~--t-^ ^ ■"^^ 




/ 

/ 

1 






^ 


^ 


^ 


\ 
\ 
.- \ 



Glencairn I. 

round superiority and carried the cup away with 
her to Canada. 

One of the trial boats of 1895, Q'^^stion, de- 
signed and built by L. D. Huntington, Jr., of New 
Rochelle on the Sound, was of most peculiar 
form, somewhat similar to the New Haven 
sharpie, with flat bottom and flat sides meeting 
at almost a right angle. Though roughly and 
heavily built, and slow in light weather, with a 
strong breeze and sea she was easily the fastest 
of the fleet. Her all-round performance in the 



Small Yacbting 



261 



trial races was not notable, but at times, when all 
conditions fitted her, she was remarkably fast. 
During the winter the question of her peculiar 
design and its good and bad qualities was very 
thoroughly discussed in one of the yachting 
journals ; and in following up the investigation 
thus started, Messrs. Duggan and Shearwood 
were led to a departure quite as radical as that 
in Gloriana a few years before. 

In studying the common bateau form, with flat 
floor and sides and square bilges, it became evi- 
dent that with a rock- 
ered floor the length on 
the water-line might be 
made very short ; but 
if the boat, by means 
of movable ballast, were 
inclined until only one 
edge was in the water, 
she would have a greatly 
increased water-line and 
decreased breadth, 

being, in fact, instead of a wide, square box a 
long, narrow canoe. The problem then was, 
as all shifting of dead weight was prohibited, 
to produce a form with a very short measured 




-T:( SchtH 



Glencaim I. 



262 American Yachting 

water-line when upright and in normal trim, but 
which could be heeled and held safely and stead- 
ily at a much greater angle than was desirable 
in the case of the normal type of yacht. 

The publicity given to the discussion of Ques- 
tion led others to attempt the same problem. A 
number of extreme scows, as they were soon called, 
were among the trial fleet of the defence, and the 
successful jS'/ZT^^W^was built upon the same prin- 
ciple ; but the results accomplished by Messrs. 
Duggan and Shearwood were far ahead of all 
others. With comparatively curved and yacht- 
like lines and a general form that was in no way 
freakish or clumsy, Glencairn had the minimum 
of measured water-line and the maximum of effec- 
tive length when heeled by her crew ; she was fast 
both on the wind and free (a weak point with 
many of the scows) in light weather, and she was 
very able in a blow. 

The third match for the cup took place in 1897 
on Lake St. Louis, the challenger being the 
Seawanhaka Corinthian Yacht Club, represented 
by Mr. Crane in a new yacht, Momo, of his own 
design ; while Messrs. Duggan and Shearwood 
defended the cup in Glencairn II, winning very 
easily. Momo was an improvement on El Heirie, 



Small Yacbting 263 

in the direction indicated by Gleiicairn /, but 
like her older sister she lacked freeboard and 
power, and though fast in light weather, was 
easily beaten in any force of wind. Again in 
1898 Mr. Crane returned with a new boat. Chal- 
lenger, very similar to Glencairn II, only to find 
that his opponents had developed the initial idea 
of effective length though heeling to a far greater 
extreme, in a new boat. Dominion. 

By this time both parties had departed from 
all semblance of yacht form and traditional prin- 
ciples of designing, and it was merely a question 
of which could evade the Seawanhaka rule in the 
most flagrant manner. Some of Mr. Crane's boats 
were round in the bows like a ferry-boat, and the 
trial races of the Seawanhaka Corinthian Yacht 
Club brought together the most grotesque collec- 
tion of craft ever seen in civilized waters, the 
name " freak " being one of the mildest applied to 
them. 

Dominion, with a water-line for measurement of 
but 17 feet 6 inches, was 37 feet long on deck, 
and with sides nearly parallel and square ends. 
When heeled, she immersed the entire length of 
side; and to perfect the immersed form of this 
portion, the bottom was cut away in the centre by 



264 American Yachting 

a U-shaped hollow from end to end, there being 
two distinct hulls under water united by a single 
hull above. When first viewed by the chal- 
lengers, she was pronounced a catamaran, and 
objection was made to her on this ground, with 
the statement that catamarans had been formally 

barred from racing with 
yachts of normal form 
by the New York Yacht 
Club in 1877. A search 
of the records of the 
New York Yacht Club 
failed to establish any 
such precedent, nor was 
it proved that she was 
really a catamaran, her 
. cscHov^^^^^^^^^^^ whole form and struc- 
Semeviiie, Seawanhaka Cup ture being radically dif- 

Defender. 1901. f^^.^^^ ^^^^ ^^^ peculiar 

Typical Duggan 20-footer. 1 r r 

Herreshoii racmg 
machines which alone made the name famous. 
The races were sailed, Dominion winning with 
ease, her speed to windward being something 
wonderful. Much discussion followed, and the 
Royal St. Lawrence Yacht Club abandoned the 
type, confining itself in the future to the general 




Small Yacbiing 265 

type of Glencairn I and Gleiicairn II ; but many 
other double-hulled boats similar to Dominion 
have since been built in different parts of the 
United States and freely admitted to races. 

In 1899 Mr. Crane came for a third attempt 
with a new boat, Co7istance, but she in turn was 
beaten by Glencairn III, the match ending in a 
serious dispute, — the final one of many between 
the two clubs. Since then the cup has been suc- 
cessfully defended against challengers from Eng- 
land, from the West, and from New York and 
Boston, many types of freak racing machines hav- 
ing visited Lake St. Louis only to meet defeat at 
the hands of Mr. Duggan and his able associates. 

The interest in the first match for the Seawan- 
haka cup was by no means local, but extended 
throughout the countiy; and with the publication 
of the news of the trial and Cup races, of the de- 
scriptions and lines of the new class, and the 
discussion of Questio7i and her performances, 
yachtsmen in remote localities were led to build 
similar boats. The fact that an important inter- 
national match was being contested by yachts 
costing but $600, small enough to be transported 
on an ordinary wagon, and drawing but six inches 
of water, or four feet with the centre-board down, 



266 American Yachting 

of itself suggested the introduction of the type on 
many small and remote inland lakes where yacht- 
ing had been unknown. The class was taken up 
with much enthusiasm in the Middle West, where 
the racing thus far had been confined to a few 
localities and to the old type of sand-bag boats 
purchased in the East. New clubs were formed, 
new men came into the racing ranks, and new 
boats without number were built. Many of these 
were designed by local amateurs, while the lead- 
ing English and American designers were called 
on for others. 

This type of racing boat, the only one possible 
on many small bodies of water, has proved per- 
manently popular, and a strong and vigorous 
yachting system, including many clubs, now exists 
in Wisconsin, Illinois, and Minnesota. It is no 
longer the fashion to come East for new ideas, 
but the Western racing men, amateur and pro- 
fessional together, have evolved distinct types and 
methods of construction of their own. The small 
size of the boats makes it easily possible to trans- 
port them by wagon from one lake to another for 
local matches, or to ship by rail, as has fre- 
quently been done, for races about New York or 
Montreal. 



CHAPTER XVII 

THE SCOW TYPE IN DESIGNING 

Ethehuynn was of a general type common to 
all periods of yacht building, and to which even 
Gloriana, with her many radical features, be- 
longed. The main characteristic of this t\'pe is 
a midship section more or less of the V form, 
when closely analyzed, though it varies between 
the wide extremes of the centre-board sloop with 
flat floor and round bilge and the deep Burgess 
boats of S section. Different as they were in 
their superficial features and also in many essen- 
tials, all of these models had in common a V 
form, — at least to the vertical sections of the fore- 
body; and also to the horizontal sections, the 
load water-line, and others above and below it. 
In all alike, the narrow cutter or the wide, shoal 
skimming-dish, the first principle of sailing is to 
keep them as nearly upright as possible. That 
the cutter at times laid her sails almost flat on 
the water was not intentional with either designer 
or skipper, but was an inherent fault of her design, 

267 



268 



American Yachting 



which was supposed to be compensated by advan- 
tages in other directions. 

In all of these yachts the effect of heeling 
was the same. As the hull left the perpendicular 



OLE N CAIRN 




Comparison of water-lines of Ethehvynn type and Glencaim type. The plain black 
lines show the load water-line planes in upright position, the water-line length of 
Ethelwynn h&'xng 1 5 feet and of G/^wca/'^ 12 feet 6 inches. The shaded portions 
show the load water-line planes when heeled to an angle of about 15 degrees for 
Ethelwynn and 22 degrees for Glencairn. In Ethelwyyin the effective length has 
actually decreased with the heeling, while the breadth is nearly the same. In 
Glencairn the effective length has increased considerably, while the breadth on th^ 
water-line has decreased, thus making of the immersed portion of the hull a long, 
narrow canoe. 



under the heeling impulse of the sails, she im- 
mersed more or less of her lee bilge, and conse- 
quently the axis of the water-line plane, the 
straight line between the point where the fore 



The Scow Type in Designing 269 

edge of the stem intersects the water and the 
similar point on the stern-post or the ridge of the 
counter, lifted out more or less according to 
the model. The effect of this was to shorten 
the actual water-line as the yacht heeled, this 
shortening being very marked at the bow; at 
the stern, however, there was a corresponding 
lengthening as the round of the quarter became 
immersed. In the cutter, both the narrow and 
wide types, and in many other types, the longest 
water-line possible was that when the yacht lay 
at anchor in an upright position, the length de- 
creasing rapidly as she heeled. With the very 
full water-line, introduced in Gloriana and carried 
to greater extremes in later yachts, this short- 
ening of the water-line through heeling was less 
pronounced, but still it existed. 

If a common oblong box, such as a cigar box, 
be set afloat, its length will be the same at all 
angles of heel, being neither less nor more than 
the length of top and bottom. If, however, the 
ends of this box be cut away in wedge-shape from 
beneath, the conditions are entirely changed. 
When upright, the box floats at a certain water- 
line whose length is intermediate between the 
length on the bottom and the length on the top, 



270 American Yachting 

the breadth on this water-Hne being necessarily 
the extreme width of the box. As soon as the 
box is heeled, however, one side rises and the 
other is immersed, with a constant gain of water- 
line length until, when the upper edge of the 
immersed side is level with the water, the water- 
line length has increased to that of the top of 
the box. At the same time, the displacement 
necessarily remaining the same, the midship sec- 
tion has changed from a rectangle to a V, and 
the breadth on the water-line, instead of being 
equal to the total breadth of the box, is perhaps 
less than half. Disregarding that portion in the 
air, the immersed portion now has the form of a 
long, narrow canoe, — a form well adapted for 
speed and for easy performance in rough water. 
As long as it rests upright, the box, with its 
short water-line and great breadth, is of a poor 
model for speed ; it has a maximum of wetted 
surface, and the shoal, flat midship section permits 
it to make leeway. When heeled, however, the 
proportions and form, are such as to give speed, 
the wetted surface is reduced, and the section, 
now a deep V, gives good lateral resistance of 
itself, without the aid of a centre-board. If the 
box be anchored, being naturally in the upright 



The Scow Type in Designing 271 



position, it will be tossed about by every movement 
of the water, and its overhanging bow and stern 





c 


r.G.1. 







/, 




- -y/d 




/ . 






A/VV 


'/ 




.//' 


a [.-•■.' 






t// 


L^ y 



r,c.2. 






Ala/ /r, f( 




r.G-4. 




r'TlcS. d'^ 



Fio. 1 . — Rectangoilar box, 30 inches long, 6 inches wide, and 2 inches deep, ini- 
mersed to water-line abed. 

Fig. 2. — Load water plane of Fig. 1 , when heeled to angle shown in Fig. 3. Length. 
ab, is the same as AB (30 inches); breadth, AC, in upright position (6 inches) 
now becomes ac (3 inches). 

Fig. 3. — End view of box, in upright and inclined positions. 

Fig. 4. — Box with ends cut away ; the length on top is still 30 inches, but the length 
on measured water-line, a'h\ is but 18 inches. Load water plane in upright posi- 
tion, a'b'c' d\ is a rectangle, 18 inches long and 6 inches wide. 

Fig. 5. —Load water plane of Fig. 4, when heeled until edge A' B' is level with water : 
the effective sailing length. A' B\ is 30 inches, while the breadth is but 3 inches. 



will be hammered as soon as the water becomes 
a little rough. When heeled, however, the new 
form is such as to take the seas very easily. 



2 72 American Yachting 

The whole problem of the modern racing scow, 
which has vexed the yachting world since the ad- 
vent of Question, lies in this simple demonstration 
of the upright and inclined box. 

Some of the old models, such as the sharpie 
and the skipjack, or flattie, possess some of the 
features of the modern scow, but these are purely 
accidental and involve no principle of design. 
Nearly all of them, however flat and angular in 
the middle body, have the V section forward, 
with a more or less sharp forward water-line, 
which prevents any gain in length as they heel. 
Question embodied some of the main points of 
advantage of the modern scow, but neither she 
nor the later efforts in the same line by her de- 
signer were notably successful. 

A very simple experiment with a cigar box and 
a vessel of water, as just described, will serve to 
demonstrate the basic principle of the scow type, 
— the gain of effective sailing length and the im- 
provement in form through heeling to an abnor- 
mal angle. The successful application of this 
general principle in the production of a racing 
yacht is a much more diflicult matter, and most 
attempts have resulted in failure. There are 
many reasons, both theoretical and practical, why 



The Scow Type in Designing 273 

the plain angular box form, in spite of the great 
gain in length, is not the best; but it is the one 
which, from the apparent simplicity of the prob- 
lem, has attracted the greatest number of experi- 
menters. The extreme to which this abnormal 
type has been carried is seen in the yachts which 
raced for the Quincy cup in 1902. 

This cup was established in 1898 by the Quincy 
Yacht Club, of Quincy, Massachusetts, as a per- 
petual challenge cup, open to yachts of all organ- 
ized yacht clubs, regardless of nationality, the only 
limitations being that the total weight of crew 
should not exceed 850 pounds, and that the load 
water-line, measured with crew on board, should 
not exceed 21 feet. It would be difficult to frame 
a rule offering greater encouragement to a t}pe 
whose vicious tendencies are recognized by all 
yachtsmen ; and it is in no way surprising that 
while at the outset the cup was contested for by 
yachts of fairly normal type, in a very few years 
it produced such machines as had never before 
been equalled in yachting. 

The successful defender of the cup for the 
Manchester Yacht Club in 1902, Outlook, designed 
by W. S. Burgess, the son of Edward Burgess, 
was 52 feet 7 inches in length on deck, on a 



2 74 American Yachting 

measured water-line of 20 feet 10 inches, her 
breadth being 16 feet on deck and 13 feet 6 inches 
on the water-line, with a depth of about 2 feet and 
an area of 1800 square feet in mainsail and jib. 
She, however, was even exceeded by another com- 
petitor in the trial races, 55 feet on deck, 17 feet 

in breadth, and with a 
sail area of 2000 square 
feet. The hulls^ of these 
boats drew but a few 
inches, large centre- 
boards and deep rudders 
being necessary to pro- 
vide lateral resistance 
and steering power. 
When heeled by the 
great area of sail, or by 
the entire crew being 
placed to leeward if the wind was very light, 
they immersed nearly the entire length of the 
deck edge, sailing on an effective water-line of 
about 50 feet as compared with the measured 
water-line of 2 1 feet ; the breadth at the same 
time being reduced to about 8 feet instead of 16 
to 17 feet when upright. 

This extreme type of scow has been developed 




Outlook. 



The Scow Type in Designing 275 

to the highest point of perfection on the small 
western lakes, — notably White Bear Lake, in 
Minnesota, where it has been tried in competition 
with many varieties of less extreme proportions 
and form. 

The most successful results thus far attained 
have been in the very large fleet of small yachts 
of the 15-foot, 20-foot, and 25-foot classes designed 
by Messrs. Duggan and Shearwood in conjunc- 
tion for the Seawanhaka cup contests from 1896 
to the present year. All of these were designed 
upon the principles of the scow, as described 
above, with a short measured water-line and a 
material gain in effective length when heeled ; 
but these principles have been adapted, as far as 
possible, to the conventional yacht form, with 
curved lines in all directions instead of straight 
lines and positive angles. In addition, the ex- 
treme scow has very little freeboard and no sheer, 
being merely a flat, oblong platform aptly de- 
scribed by the popular nicknames of " sidewalk " 
and " barn-door." The Duggan boats, on the con- 
trary, are distinguished by a generous amount of 
freeboard and more or less sheer. While the 
extreme type has practically straight, parallel 
sides and square ends, the Duggan boats, with 



276 



American Yachting 



the exception of Dommion^ have the curved side- 
line, the pointed bow, and the square transom of 
the normal yacht. While the flat scow is intended 




Extreme Type of Racing Scow, 1900. 

and used exclusively for racing, all of the Duggan 
boats are fitted with large cockpits, and are used 
for pleasure sailing quite as much as for racing. 

The phenomenal speed of such yachts as 
Outlook, which has excited such comment 
among yachtsmen, is very largely fictitious, 
and is based upon the assumption that such a 
yacht really measures but 21 feet on the water- 
line. As a matter of actual fact, she only attains 
this speed when, by expert handling and the agil- 
ity and weight of her crew, she can be balanced 
close to one particular angle, at which she be- 
comes a canoe of about 50 feet length and 6 to 
8 feet breadth, with very fine lines and an enor- 
mous sail plan ; that large portion of the hull 



Tbe Scow Type in Designing 277 

out of water to windward being in itself ballast 
in an advantageous position and a lever for the 
weight of the crew. 

The production of the scow type was possible 
only through an open and palpable evasion of 
the spirit of the length-and-sail-area rule in vogue 
in 1 895- 1 896 and for some years later; the build- 
ing of a trick hull and the heeling it, as de- 
scribed, being entirely contrary to the principle 
upon which the rule was based. The inevitable 
result of this evasion, if freely permitted, was 
pointed out immediately by some of the more 
conservative yachtsmen ; but the clubs, one and 
all, refused to take cognizance of it by such a 
timely alteration of the rule as would place a 
fair value upon the length actually utilized in 
sailing. The result has been that this type in 
several more or less extreme forms has domi- 
nated yacht designing in all the smaller classes 
in America, and has also found its way into 
French and Italian yachting in the very small 
classes. Almost as a matter of course, its influ- 
ence for evil has been felt to a greater or less 
degree in the large classes, and even in cruising 
yachts. 

The most ambitious attempt at scow design- 



278 American Yachting 

ing was that made in 1901 in connection with 
the America Cup match of that year, the yacht, 
hidependence, being designed by B. B. Crownin- 
shield, of Boston, for T. W. Lawson of the same 
city, with the intention of competing in the trial 
races. Owing to a dispute between the New 
York Yacht Club and Mr. Lawson, who was 
not a member of the club, the yacht did not take 
part in these races ; and through this and other 
circumstances it is impossible to pass a fair opin- 
ion upon the real merits of her design as com- 
pared with the more moderate forms of the 
Herreshoff boats. Her dimensions were : length 
over all, 140 feet 10^ inches; water-line, 89 feet ; 
breadth, extreme, 24 feet; breadth at water-line, 
23 feet 5 inches; draft, 20 feet. Being a radi- 
cal experiment in construction, with no data to 
guide her designer in a form which was inher- 
ently weak, she leaked badly, and after one or 
two experiences in a sea she was permanently 
damaged. In the course of a very brief and incon- 
clusive racing career she gave evidences of excep- 
tional speed at times, under certain conditions, 
and at the same time of the possession in a 
marked degree of the defects noticed in the 
smaller scows. Those connected with her rested 



The Scow Type in Designing 279 

firm in the belief that her faults were not inher- 
ent to her type, but were due to lack of experi- 
ence in racing machines of such great size, and 
to the haste with which she was designed and 
built. On the other hand, there is reason to 
believe that, like most of her type, she would 
under the most favorable conditions prove a 
very uncertain and uneven performer, extremely 
fast on certain courses and in certain winds, but 
slow under the average conditions under which 
races are now sailed. After being in commission 
just three months, she was broken up ; the experi- 
ment, including the incidental expenses of run- 
ning, having cost her owner over $200,000. 

Independence was, of course, a fin-keel scow, 
of a type which has become very common in 
the classes of decked cabin yachts up to thirty 
feet or so w^ater-line about New York and Boston, 
with curved lines and generally rounded form, 
but embodying the scow principle as far as is 
possible. The trend of all recent legislation is 
toward a tardy but effectual revision of the 
measurement rule, which will prohibit the type 
in the future in all yachts of any size. 



CHAPTER XVIII 



THE ONE-DESIGN AND RESTRICTED CLASSES 

Of the many measure- 
ment rules in use at dif- 
ferent periods and in 
different localities in 
America, the " length- 
and-sail-area " rule, de- 
vised by Mr. Hyslop, 
5- has been the most 
generally used, and for 
the longest time. 
Adopted in an experi- 




Original Knockabout. 



mental form in 1882, it was changed in the follow- 



ing year to the familiar formula , or the 

mean of the water-line length and the square root 
of the sail area. At the same time the New 
York Yacht Club adopted Mr. Hyslop 's proposi- 
tion, but in a form that bore less heavily on sail ; 
the length to be taken twice and the square root 

280 



''One-design '^ and Restricted Classes 281 

of the sail area but once, the sum of the two quan- 
tities being divided by 3 instead of 2. 

As appHed at the outset to the sloops and 
schooners of the American type, and to the grow- 
ing fleet of cutters as well, this rule worked very 
satisfactorily, and was, perhaps, as good as any 
that could have been devised. Under its influ- 
ence, the New York Yacht Club later changing to 
the Seawanhaka coefficients, and this same rule 
being adopted by many other clubs, was devel- 
oped the great fleet of modern yachts designed by 
Gary Smith, Burgess, and the younger American 
designers — the yachts now looked back to as 
representing the best days of American yachting. 

In a rough and empirical way the rule placed a 
fair valuation upon two of the essential factors of 
speed, — the length and the power; both breadth 
and draft, with the position of the ballast, being 
approximately measured through the sail area 
carried. In all the yachts of this era, sloop and 
cutter, small and large, the midship section was 
of considerable area in proper proportion to the 
rectangle formed by the breadth and draft ; and 
the fact that a yacht had the power to carry a 
reasonable sail spread was of itself a guarantee of 
a certain amount of internal space available for 
cabin, galley, etc. 



282 American Yachting 

The introduction of Gloriana placed an entirely 
new value upon the important factor of length ; 
and when this was followed by the fin keel Di- 
lemma^ in which breadth and draft were out of 
all proportion to the very small transverse area of 
the canoe-like hull, the rule became practically 
worthless. With the introduction of the scow 
type a few years later the weakness of the rule 
w^as further magnified, as a water-line length of 20 
feet, as used in the rule, meant an effective sail- 
ing length of from 30 to 40 feet, with a propor- 
tionate sail area. 

Although the fact that the Seawanhaka rule 
had outlived its usefulness was realized as early 
as 1892, and its positive and active influences for 
the production of a most extreme type of racing 
machine were generally discussed by yachtsmen 
from that time on, the racing owners and the 
clubs together opposed all efforts toward a 
revision of the rule ; and it is only within a very 
few years that anything has been accomplished in 
this direction. 

As the rule came to be tested in a new and 
unforeseen way through the adoption of extreme 
dimensions and forms, the question of construc- 
tion assumed a new aspect. The original con- 



''One-design" and Restricted Classes 283 

struction of yachts differed in no way from the 
contemporary practice in commercial shipyards 
in other vessels of the same size. The construc- 
tion of the America was that of the ordinary pilot- 
boat ; and as yacht building became more of a 
specialty in the period immediately succeeding 
her, the standard of construction was lowered 
rather than raised, lacking the sterling qualities 
of the old-fashioned shipwright's work. The soft 
woods — white and yellow pine, cedar, and chest- 
nut — were very largely used instead of oak, teak, 
and mahogany, as in British practice, with some 
saving of weight but at the expense of initial 
strength and durability. The arrangement of 
parts and the selection and disposition of fasten- 
ings, — in itself a material factor of good construc- 
tion, — received little attention at the hands of 
yacht-builders between i860 and 1880; and at the 
same time the shoal, flat form, further weakened 
by the centre-board slot and trunk, the pressure 
of the big board itself, the cabin trunk, covering 
a large portion of the deck area and depriving the 
hull of the necessary strength given by continu- 
ous deck beams, made of the large centre-board 
yacht a weak and dangerous structure. That 
representative vessels of this era, such as Vesta, 



284 American Yachting 

crossed the Atlantic in safety, in no way offsets 
the fact that the general system of construction 
was faulty in the extreme. 

Mosquito (cutter), 1848, practically inaugurated 
the use of iron in yacht construction in England, 
but it was not until 1871 that it was introduced 
in this country through Vi^idex ; and until the 
building of Mischief, in 1879, very few yachts, 
either sail or steam, were of other than the ordi- 
nary wood construction. Early in the sixties 
some fine examples of composite construction 
were launched on the Clyde, Oimara, the big 
yawl, and others of her time being afloat to-day ; 
and this construction in a highly perfected form 
has been popular in Great Britain ever since. It 
is seen at its best in such yachts as Queen Mad, 
Valkyrie II, Astrild, and Eeli^i, all well known in 
this country. The keel, stem, and stern-post are 
of wood ; the frames and floors are of steel ; inside 
the wood keel is a " keel plate " or " dish-plate 
keelson," flanged into a trough-like form, to which 
the heels of frames and the floors are riveted ; 
and with this and the frames as a backbone and 
ribs, a basket-work of deck beams, diagonal straps, 
floor beams, and gussets, with stringer-plates and 
sheer-strakes, make a light but extremely strong 



'' One- design '' and Restricted Classes 285 

and rigid frame. Over this basket of steel straps 
is laid the planking of the hull and the deck, the 
planking frequently being in two thicknesses. 

While the common shipyard construction was 
almost universally followed in yachts, with occa- 
sional attempts at improvement on the part of 
some builders whose mechanical instincts and 
love for their art moved them to better things, 
the first real advance in construction is due to 
Mr. Gary Smith, who, beginning with such yachts 
as Intrepid and Fortuna, cut out much useless 
deadwood, studied more carefully the proportion- 
ing and arrangement of members, and insisted on 
thorough fitting and fastening. The Harvey 
cutters, Oriva, Bedouin, and Wenonah, introduced 
a new and very costly construction, the sizes of 
the frames being much reduced, they being in 
part sawn and in part steamed and bent, while 
the planking was in two thicknesses, carefully 
fitted, with marine glue or some similar substance 
between, and fastened with copper rivets. In 
lightness, strength, and durability this construc- 
tion marked a great advance, but owing to its 
cost it never became general in this country. 

The now all-important question of the weight 
of hull and spars as compared with the ballast 



286 American Yachting 

received no serious attention in America prior 
to the building of the 40-footer Liris in 1889. 
Puritan, Mayflower, and the other Burgess boats, 
except a few built of steel, were of merely a good 
grade of ordinary wood construction, — wood 
frames, keel, and planking, without diagonal 
straps or other auxiliary members now considered 
necessary. 

In Liris the backbone was of oak, the frames 
were of steel angles, carried down into the oak 
keel in a way that subjected the lower ends to 
the certainty of corrosion in a few years of ex- 
posure to bilge-water and the acids of the oak. 
The planking was of two thicknesses, the inner 
cedar and the outer mahogany, with painted can- 
vas between, both skins being riveted together 
between the frames and fastened to the latter by 
bronze screw bolts; the deck, also, being of two 
thicknesses. All the spars were hollow, each 
stick being sawn in half longitudinally, hollowed 
out, and cemented together with a mixture of 
quicklime and pot cheese. Through the weight 
thus saved in hull and spars, the yacht was en- 
abled to carry some two to three tons more of 
lead in her keel than the Burgess boats of the 
same dimensions and displacement, this in turn 



''One-design" and Restricted Classes 287 

giving her from 300 to 400 square feet additional 
in the sail plan. Her light sails, too, were of 
Union silk, then but little known here. Owing 
to its experimental nature this construction was 
largely a failure, every spar gave way during the 
first season, two masts being lost; but in spite 
of this handicap and the hard competition of 
Minerva^ the advantages of such a construction 
were demonstrated in the many victories of Liris 
over others of her class. 

The first Burgess 40-footers were built with 
wood frames and single planking, but steel frames 
were used in MoccasiJt and Gossoon in 1890, and 
in the 46-footers of the following year. With 
thick single planking, wedged off from the 
frames by the necessarily heavy calking, these 
latter boats were failures at the outset, demand- 
ing very thorough strengthening to make them 
tight and safe, though they are all afloat and in 
use to-day. The construction of Gloriana was 
of this so-called " composite " method ; but she 
had a double skin, a material element of strength 
in itself, though on trial it was found necessary 
to add steel straps inside under the deck beams. 

With Gloriana, Wasp, and the Herreshoff fin 
keels was introduced a very expensive system of 



288 American Yachting 

construction, commonly called "composite," but 
lacking the thoroughness of the Scotch method 
with its complete interior basket, and at times 
failing badly, as in the case of the Herreshoff 70- 
foot class mentioned later. The efforts of every 
designer were concentrated in the reduction of 
the weight of hull and spars, in order that dis- 
placement might be reduced, and at the same 
time the proportion of ballast might be increased 
to give added power. The cost of yacht-build- 
ing ran up within a few years to figures pre- 
viously unheard of, the sizes of the yachts 
decreasing at the same time. 

The formation of the several Cup-defending 
syndicates took from the regular class racing 
many good yachtsmen, who, though liberal in 
their support, soon tired of building a large 
yacht, or even a 40-footer, with the certainty 
that if she held together for more than one sea- 
son she would be outclassed by a more extreme 
design, and outbuilt by still lighter construction, 
while from her extreme type she could not be 
sold for a cruiser. The result was that with the 
growing interest in the smaller racing classes 
even the wealthier yachtsmen abandoned the 
large for the small yachts, and, as the actual 



''One-design'^ and Restricted Classes 289 

amount involved was but small, offered every 
inducement to designer and builder to produce 
the fastest possible racing machine, without re- 
gard to first cost or final utility and sale value. 
Under this stimulus the cost of yacht-racing rose 
rapidly, while the boats were useless for other 
purposes, and even if they survived their brief 
racing life, were broken up in a few seasons. 

As the building of freaks, large and small, 
became little less than an epidemic in yacht- 
ing, a natural reaction followed on the part of 
the older and more conservative yachtsmen, and 
also some of the younger element, who demanded 
something more than continual outbuilding and 
match sailing. 

One of the first evidences of this revolt was 
about Marblehead, where in 1892 the 21 -foot 
length class was in existence, including some 
very extreme centre-board machines — for the 
time — and some expensively built fin keels. In 
the summer of this year there appeared two 
peculiar little boats, in general type similar to 
the keel fishing boats of the coast, but with the 
symmetry of form and the finished construction 
of the yacht. These two, Nancy and Jane, were 
designed by Stewart & Binney for Henry Tag- 



290 



American Yacbtins: 



gard and Herman Parker, members of the East- 
ern and Corinthian Yacht clubs, being intended 




Lines of Original Knockabout, 1892. 



''One-design" and Restricted Classes 291 

for sailing in the rough water of Massachusetts 
Bay in all weathers, — a use which made the term 
" knockabout " most natural and appropriate. On 
a water-line of 21 feet and a breadth of 7 feet 2 
inches, the bow was carried out into a very easy 
and graceful overhang, making up most of the 
excess in the over-all length of 25 feet 6 inches, 
there being no after overhang, except the small 
amount due to the moderate rake of the square 
transom. The draft was 4 feet 2 inches, of 
which about 18 inches was made up of an iron 
keel of 1070 pounds. The yacht was half-decked 
with an oval cockpit; the rudder was hung out- 
side the transom ; and beneath the foredeck was 
a cuddy, giving shelter in a sudden storm and 
dry stowage for gear. The rig was as peculiar 
as the hull : the total area of 400 square feet was 
distributed between a rather large mainsail and 
small jib, the latter with tack fast to the stem 
head, thus dispensing with a bowsprit. The hull 
was strongly constructed but neatly finished, and 
the complete yacht ready for sailing cost but 
$450, as compared with ^2000 for a racing 21- 
footer, fit only for sailing in moderate weather. 
These two boats were seen outside Marblehead 
Harbor, sailed by one man at times, in weather 



292 American Yachting 

when the larger yachts were glad to lie at their 
moorings. They were slow in light weather beside 
the racing 21 -footers and some of the old cat- 
boats, but for real pleasure sailing at all times on 
such open waters they were unequalled. The 
name and type very soon became popular and 
the Boston designers were kept busy with new 
designs. In a short time a counter was added, 
the form was altered a little, lead keels were 
introduced, and the sail area was increased, each 
successive boat being faster than her predecessor 
but at the same time a little further from the idea 
which had called the type into existence. Early 
in 1894 the majority of the owners of the knock- 
abouts united for the protection of the class before 
it should be improved out of existence, and a 
simple agreement was made that all should unite 
in discouraging the over-development of the 
boats, observing some restrictions on dimensions, 
type, and ballasting. In the following year, with 
a great increase of the number of knockabouts, 
now recognized as an admirable racing class, the 
Knockabout Association was formed, with an 
extension of the restrictions, which ultimately in- 
cluded the sizes of frames, planking, etc. 

As the racing continued, it attracted to the class 



''One-design'' and Restricted Classes 293 

some of the most active of eastern yachtsmen, and 
Herreshoff and other designers were placed in hot 
competition to head the class. The result was 
the rapid reduction of displacement and midship 
section, with weight of hull in spite of the scant- 
ling restrictions, and the increase of the pro- 
portion of weight in the keel. Though the 
" fin keel " was specifically prohibited in the class, 
this competition, in which Mr. Herreshoff led, 
soon resulted in an expensive racing machine, of 
over thirty feet over-all length, with a section 
which was virtually that of the fin keel, except in 
that the metal plate was replaced by a deep, thin 
fin of wood. 

Up to 1898 the sail limit had been 500 square 
feet, with not less than 400 square feet in the 
mainsail ; but in that year a new class was organ- 
ized, with 600 square feet of sail, a bowsprit being 
permitted. The original idea of a knockabout 
had entirely disappeared, and a new name, " race- 
about," applied first by the writer in derision of 
this machine-ward tendency of even the best 
attempts for the preservation of desirable types, 
was very shortly adopted generally for the new 
class. The knockabout still survives to a certain 
extent as a cruising boat; but for some years past 



294 American Yachting 

the raceabout in an extreme form, both as to 
model and construction, has been popular in the 
East and on Long Island Sound as a racing class. 

In 1894 a restricted racing class was started 
on Long Island Sound, the idea originating with 
W. Butler Duncan, Jr. The limits were 21 feet 
water-line, 31 feet over all, decked with open 
cockpit and not more than 600 nor less than 500 
square feet of sail in mainsail and jib. Some thir- 
teen boats were built from designs by Herreshoff, 
Gardner, Dyer, Waterhouse, and others, the Her- 
reshoff boats being fin keels and most of the 
others of the centre-board type. The class was 
raced steadily for the first season, and though the 
interest then declined so far as some of the origi- 
nal owners were concerned, the boats in other 
hands were sailed for some years in various classes 
about the Sound. 

In 1895 a larger class of cabin yachts, of 34 
feet total measurement by the Seawanhaka rule, 
was started by the Larchmont Yacht Club under 
rigid restrictions, the yachts, both keel and centre- 
board, being designed by leading New York de- 
signers. The class was not as successful as at 
first anticipated, and proved rather short-lived. 

In 1896 another class was started by the yachts- 



'' One-design '^ and Restricted Classes 295 

men of Newport, the yachts being excUisIvely of 
one design and identical construction. They were 
designed and built by the Herreshoff Manufactur- 
ing Company, — fin-keel boats of double-skin con- 
struction with bronze fins, the length over all 
being 42 feet; water-line, 30 feet; breadth, 8 feet 
3 inches ; and draft, 7 feet. They were rigged 
as pole-masted sloops, with short bowsprits, and 
each was fitted with a small cabin forward, — a 
shelter in case of rain. The class was nominally 
a restricted but not a " one-design " one, and three 
outside boats by other designers sailed a few 
races ; as a matter of fact, however, in its long 
life, from 1896 to the present time, it has been 
exclusively a Herreshoff one-design class. Some 
twenty yachts, all exactly alike, have been built 
and raced every season at Newport, some of them 
taking part in the races at the west end of the 
Sound early in the season. Both Corinthians 
and professionals have handled the sticks, and 
some have been sailed by ladies. The large 
number of races sailed by yachts of identical 
design and construction have served as most 
valuable tests of men and sails, the winning being 
dependent upon these two important factors. 
Where two men have changed boats after sailing 



296 American Yachting 

against each other for half a dozen races ; or 
where, under similar conditions, one of the boats 
has tried a new mainsail, there has been no diffi- 
culty in locating the exact cause of such differ- 
ence as might be apparent in the result. 

In 1898 the Seawanhaka Corinthian Yacht 
Club established a one-design class of 21 -foot 
knockabouts, designed and built by W. B. Stearns, 
of Marblehead, some twenty boats being built for 
this club, and as many more for the Philadelphia 
Corinthian Yacht Club and other clubs. 

The most ambitious attempt at a one-design 
class was made in 1900 in the Herreshoff 70-foot 
class, four yachts being built, — Mineola II, for Au- 
gust Belmont, Virginia for W. K. Vanderbilt, Jr., 
Yankee for H. B. Duryea and H. P. Whitney, and 
Rainbow for Cornelius Vanderbilt. Though origi- 
nally intended as a model class of fast cruisers 
with ample cabin accommodation, the final design 
was of the extreme semi-fin type, with very full 
water-line, hollow midship section, and excessive 
overhangs. The dimensions were: length over 
all, 106 feet; water-line, 70 feet; breadth, 19 feet 
5 inches; draft, 15 feet. The construction was 
nominally composite, and no expense was spared 
by the owners, but the straps, braces, stringer- 



''One-design'' and Restricted Classes 297 

plates, and other members which make the Hfe of 
a composite vessel, were omitted, there being 
little more than steel frames and wooden stem, 
keel, and planking. They showed serious signs 
of weakness in their first races, leaking very 
badly; and though persistently raced, the first 
season was spoiled by this defect. They were 
rebuilt in the following winter, at a heavy cost 
and with the addition of weight in the wrong 
place ; but no additions were made to the first 
four, and the class is virtually dead. 

A similar attempt was made in 1902, with the 
60-foot one-design class of two boats, Weetamoe 
and Neola, designed by William Gardner. The 
construction was more expensive and elaborate 
than the Herreshoff 70-footers, the plating being 
Tobin bronze on steel frames, Weetamoe having 
in part bronze frames as well. The two were not 
conspicuously successful in their first season, and 
in the following winter they were lengthened five 
feet at the bow about the water-line ; but no other 
boats were built to meet them. 

The lower limit of the one-design class is 
reached in the Yankee dory, costing from ^40 
to $60, with mainsail and jib, and bought by the 
dozen or half-dozen by small clubs. From this 



2g8 American Yachting 

the classes range upward in size and cost, includ- 
ing many stanch and able little craft of twenty 
or thirty feet length and moderate cost, in which 
young Corinthians and yachtsmen of moderate 
means can find good racing and yet can cruise as 
well. Where cost is the first object, the one- 
design class is preferable, as the first outlay for 
both design and construction is reduced to a 
minimum and, under the rules of the class, altera- 
tions are prohibited. The restricted class, how- 
ever, attains in part the same end and yet gives 
greater opportunity for experiment in design and 
the development of new ideas. 



CHAPTER XIX 

LIPTON AND THE THREE SHAMROCKS 

The avowed purpose of the donors of the 
America Cup was to promote friendly competi- 
tion between the yachtsmen of different nations, 
and it may be assumed that this carried with it 
the permanent existence of one or more classes of 
large racing yachts from which challengers and 
defenders would be chosen. So far from this 
being the case, through many causes, some of 
which have been outlined in the preceding chap- 
ter, the building of large racing yachts, both cut- 
ters and schooners, has practically ceased in this 
country, and in Great Britain as well, in spite of 
the great encouragement given by King Edward 
VII and William III in the regular racing of 
such yachts as Britannia and Meteor II, At the 
present time, as for some years past, challenges 
come, not from yachtsmen like Mr. Ashbury and 
Sir Richard Sutton, w^ho through experience in 
the ordinary class racing believe their yachts to 
be capable of winning the Cup, but from men of 

299 



300 American Yachting 

ample means, but without yachting experience, 
who see in the publicity attending a Cup match 
a means of advertising themselves. Without 
searching too closely into his ultimate motives, 
it may at least be said that Lord Dunraven dis- 
played no interest in yachting until within a very 
short time before his first challenge was issued; 
and when he appeared here several years later on 
the deck of a challenger, he knew little of yacht- 
ing usage and precedent, or of the history of the 
Cup contests; nor was he fit to deal with such 
an important venture, involving a most thorough 
knowledge of the sport in all its aspects. 

Following the Dunraven challenges and dis- 
putes British yachtsmen displayed no interest in 
the Cup. At times wealthy men, apparently at- 
tracted by the prominence which accompanies a 
challenge, took some of the preliminary steps, 
only to withdraw in the end. In 1898, however, 
a new aspirant appeared for Cup honors in the 
person of Sir Thomas Lipton, a very wealthy 
merchant, who, from a humble origin and starting 
at the very bottom as a grocer's boy, had through 
innate shrewdness and perseverance attained much 
prominence in England, being knighted as a re- 
ward for his liberal contributions to charity. 



Liptou and the Three Shamrocks 301 

In view of his conduct in three different 
matches for the Cup, his liberal expenditures in 
yachting, and his many sterling qualities, it would 
be most unfair to class him as other than a thor- 
ough sportsman ; but at the same time his yacht- 
ing career practically began with his first challenge 
for the America Cup, and his yachting experi- 
ence has been confined almost exclusively to 
one of the largest steam yachts. 

The attempts of Sir Thomas to "lift the Cup" 
— to use the phrase coined by himself — resulted 
in three matches, in 1899, 1901, and 1903, the chal- 
lenging yacht in each case being named Sham- 
rock, with a distinguishing numeral, and being 
successively defeated. By a gradual evolution 
the Cup contests have become something apart 
from the regular course of yachting, with distinct 
characteristics of their own which deserve special 
study. The three Shamrock contests, in particu- 
lar, have much in common and may be classed 
together. 

In type of yacht the two nations have come 
completely together, all the Cup contestants of 
late years being keel cutters of great draft and 
over-all length, with the cutter rig, and in model 
of the semi-fin type, of extreme hollow section, 



302 American Yachting 

the fin and hull being practically two distinct 
elements, but structurally a unit. The hulls have 
been built of metal throughout, aluminum and 
the most costly bronzes being used freely. The 
rigs, in which hollow spars of steel have become 
an essential feature, are of the cutter type but 
modified in proportion and detail, with great 
improvements in the reduction of weight and 
the simplification and strengthening of all 
parts. 

The dominating spirit of the three contests 
has been N. G. Herreshoff, who, backed by the 
confidence of different members of the New 
York Yacht Club, and working with no limita- 
tion on expense, has each year gone further in 
the perfection of the racing machine in model, 
construction, spars, rigging, and sails. The capa- 
city of the Herreshoff plant has by degrees been 
extended until almost every part of a Cup de- 
fender is produced on the premises. The steel 
angles and bronze plates are received from the 
rolling mills ; the cotton duck, all specially woven, 
also comes from outside mills ; and the blocks and 
cordage are made outside the works. For the rest, 
the sails are cut and sewed under the watchful 
eye of the designer, the hull is built under his 



Liptoii and fbe Three Shamrocks 303 

hand, and outside assistance is depended on only 
for a part of the wire rigging. 

In perfection of hull construction the Herre- 
shoff defenders have surpassed the challengers in 
light weight and strength, and at least equalled 
them in outside finish ; in rig they have been 
distinctly in advance, and the same may be said 
of the steel spars. The Herreshoff sails have 
been placed in competition beside those of Lap- 
thorne & Ratsey, the leading British makers, 
with a difference of opinion as to the exact 
merits of each ; but it is on record that the 
former have been uniformly on the winning 
boats. It is extremely difficult for one not per- 
sonally in contact with them to determine the 
true merits of large sails ; those which are 
faultless to the eye sometimes fail in actual work 
alongside of others which apparently lack both 
fit and finish. So many conditions enter into 
these Cup contests, the sails being but one of 
the many material factors, that it is impossible 
to say which of the two, if either, is distinctly 
superior. One thing can be said confidently, that 
the Herreshoff sails on the defending yachts 
have been stretched and hoisted on better spars, 
more thoroughly supported by the rigging ; they 



304 American Yachting 

have received more thoughtful and intelligent 
attention at the hands of skipper and crew; and 
they have been trimmed with more care, skill, 
and good judgment in the races. 

In the case of each of the six yachts built either 
on the Clyde or on Narragansett Bay, the most 
rigid secrecy has been maintained by owners, 
designers, and builders ; and though some dimen- 
sions are of necessity disclosed through the offi- 
cial club measurement prior to the races, most 
of the dimensions and elements, with the lines, 
are withheld from the yachting public, thus mak- 
ing any deliberate and thorough comparison of 
designs impossible. In a general way the dimen- 
sions, and even the model, show no radical differ- 
ence, except in the case of the defender of 1903, 
Reliance, The yachts have all been designed 
to the limit of 90 feet on the water-line, with 
only sufficient margin to make certain that this 
length will not be exceeded. In over-all length 
they measure from 128 feet in Shamrock I to 
143 feet in Reliance, — -the average being near the 
lower limit, — and in breadth they vary between 
24 and 25 feet. The draft of none is positively 
known, but it ranges from 19 feet 6 inches to 
under 21 feet. The sail area has increased with 



Upton and the Three Shamrocks 305 

each successive contest, that of Columbia in 
1899 being 13,131 square feet and that of Re- 
liance 16,160 square feet. 

The first challenge from Sir Thomas Lipton 
came through the Royal Ulster Yacht Club, of 
Belfast, Ireland, in the form of a notification by 
cable in August, 1898; and in the following 
month a committee of three members of the 
club and William Fife, Jr., the designer of Clara 
and Minerva, visited New York and in a short 
time arranged with the New York Yacht Club 
all the details of the match, the conditions be- 
ing the same as those governing the Dunraven 
matches. Though the " dimensions " of the chal- 
lenging yacht as specified in the Deed of Gift 
were requested, the committee gave only the 
water-line length, 89.50 feet, and no further 
demand w^as made for additional figures, of 
breadth, draft, etc. The date agreed on for 
the first race was October 3, 1899, or just thirteen 
months from the date of the challenge, proving 
the contention of some yachtsmen that the lack 
of ample notice was due not to the challengers 
but to the defenders, who in the past had refused 
to receive it. 

The design was intrusted to Mr. Fife, and the 



3o6 American Yachting 

contract for the construction was given to the 
noted builders of torpedo-boats, J. I. Thorney- 
croft & Company, on the Thames. In spite of 
his many successes in small yachts, this was 
but the third attempt of Mr. Fife in the large 
class, his first, Calluna^ in 1893, being a failure 
and his second, Ailsa, in 1895, being second to 
the older Britannia in that year, and only moder- 
ately successful later. The new boat was plated 
with manganese bronze below water and alumi- 
num on the topsides, this light but weak metal 
being used freely for straps and internal braces 
about the deck where weight was most impor- 
tant. Her spars were of steel, except the bow- 
sprit and spinnaker boom, and she had a sail 
area of 13,500 square feet. 

The defence of the Cup was assumed by J. 
Pierpont Morgan, then commodore of the New 
York Yacht Club, with C. Oliver Iselin, the latter 
as part owner in the new yacht and having entire 
charge of her. At the same time, as one of the 
Defender syndicate. Commodore Morgan bore the 
expense of rebuilding and refitting her, placing 
her in the hands of W. Butler Duncan as " man- 
aging owner " for the season. The order for the 
new yacht was placed with the Herreshoffs, and 



Lipton and the Three Shamrocks 307 

on June 10, 1S99, Cohtmbia was launched at the 
Bristol shops. With a keel, stem, and stern-post 
of cast bronze, the frames were of steel angles, 
disposed in the usual way, running from keel to 
deck at distances of about twenty inches apart ; 
the plating was of manganese bronze, except the 
upper strakes, which were of steel. The use of 
aluminum was abandoned after the experiment 
with Defender in 1893. 

Columbia s model was identical in a general 
way with that of Defender, but she was slightly 
wider, and her midship section, instead of a con- 
tinuous S curve, showed a decided turn at the 
bilge, then a straight piece of floor, and below a 
rather sharp turn into the neck of the fin. The 
lead keel, of some ninety tons, was outside of 
the bronze keel plate, but the lower strake of the 
plating lapped down over the lead, reenforcing 
the bronze lag-screws which bound the keel and 
the lead together. The fore-and-aft lines were 
more fair and true than in Defender, especially 
in the counter. The most serious defect of 
Defender was the structural weakness in the 
wake of the mast, that heavy spar with its step 
on one occasion in the early races of 1895 nearly 
going through the bottom of the boat. To remedy 



3o8 American Yachting 

this, the mast step of Columbia was extended on 
the base to cover a large area of the bottom, dis- 
tributing the strains just as a tree is rooted by 
many wide-spreading roots. At the same time 
this portion of the yacht was strengthened higher 
up by the building in of two " web frames " in 
place of the ordinary angles, — frames built up of 
light sheet steel flanged on the inner edges and 
riveted to the angles at the plating, these extend- 
ing across the deck at the mast partners as well 
as down the sides. 

Columbia was sailed by Captain Charles Barr 
with a crew of sailors from Deer Island, as in the 
case of Defender; Captain Urias Rhodes was 
selected for Defender, with a crew of Scandi- 
navian yacht sailors. Captain Rhodes was an 
old and experienced yacht skipper, but he had no 
immediate experience with the modern racing 
machine, having been for some years in the older 
type of fast cruising yacht, sailing only a few 
races on the cruise. Defender was well handled 
through the season, but the superiority of the 
new boat was apparent from the start, and her 
selection was a foregone conclusion long before 
the formal trial races. 

Captain "Archie " Hogarth, one of the leading 



Lipton and the Three Shamrocks 309 

skippers of the Clyde, was selected to command 
Shamrock /, with Captain Robert Wringe, an 
English skipper, to assist him. Captain Ho- 
garth's experience had been in smaller yachts, 
and there was no trial boat available for the tun- 
ing up of Shamrock I at home. She sailed from 
the Clyde on August 3, convoyed by her owner's 
steam yacht Erin, the New York Yacht Club 
having granted to Sir Thomas Lipton the privi- 
lege of towing, if found necessary. The voyage 
was made, partly under her jury rig, but mainly in 
tow^ in fourteen days. The month intervening 
between her refitting and the races was spent in 
trial sailing outside Sandy Hook, under the active 
direction of Mr. Fife, and wdth Sir Thomas either 
on board or following on the Erin, — the yacht 
seeming to be very fast. 

It is a remarkable fact in connection with the 
long series of Cup contests, that any particular 
season selected as likely to furnish suitable 
w^eather has proved exactly the reverse. This year 
October was chosen with the expectation of clear, 
cool w^eather and fresh wdnds ; but the weather 
was thick and foggy and there was little or no 
wind. No less than thirteen separate trials were 
made before three races were sailed, all being 



3IO American Yachting 

won by Columbia. Shamrock suffered through 
the serious illness of Mr. Fife, who was attacked 
by inflammatory rheumatism while the yacht was 
in dock just before the races, spending the next 
month in bed at his hotel, in ignorance of what 
was happening outside Sandy Hook. While 
this was a loss to the yacht, it was still more 
serious in that Mr. Fife had no personal knowl- 
edge of the good and bad points of his boat to 
guide him in the future. 

Shamrock proved very fast in light weather, 
with her large area of good canvas, and she was 
well handled in the manoeuvring ; but she 
suffered from some serious mistakes of judg- 
ment on the part of her trio of skippers, for 
Captain Ben Parker, skipper of the Emperor's 
Meteor II, had run over to New York to have a 
hand in the " lifting " of the Cup. In handling 
under all possible conditions and circumstances 
she was outmatched by Captain Barr and his 
mate, " Lem " Miller, and the crew which they 
had trained. The most serious defect of Sham- 
rock I was the weakness of her spars, which 
buckled badly in any force of wind and killed 
the sit of the sails, practically crippling her ex- 
cept in light weather. All things considered, her 



Lipton and tbe Three Shamrocks 311 

model of itself was not as thoroughly tested by 
trial with a known boat as was Columbia s 
against Defender, she was not as thoroughly 
tuned up, nor was she well sailed, while the 
absence of Mr. Fife was a serious handicap. The 
model to the eye did not resemble the many fast 
Fife boats so well known in this country, nor did 
it do equal credit to its designer in combining 
beauty of line and form with the essentials of 
speed. In November Sha7nrock I was towed 
home, she and the Erin making the passage in 
seventeen days. 

For his second attempt Sir Thomas Lipton 
selected Mr. Watson, giving him practically carte 
blanche as to expense, and asking only the fastest 
possible yacht which could be built. The basis 
of Mr. Watson's work was a series of carefully 
conducted experiments with models in the private 
experimental tank of the shipyard of William 
Denny & Brother at Dumbarton, near Glasgow. 
This line of investigation, though dating back 
some years in the designing of steam vessels for 
naval and commercial service, was new in its 
application to sailing craft, especially yachts ; 
the problem of reproducing with even approximate 
accuracy the motion of a vessel heeled under 



312 American Yachting 

sail and heading obliquely to her true course was 
very different from the simple substitution of a 
tow-line for a propeller in a power-driven vessel, 
and it is impossible to estimate the true value of 
the work to the designer. 

The model of Sha^nrock II, when seen in the 
dry-dock at New York, showed a close relation- 
ship in dimensions and type to the Herreshoff 
defenders, and also those individual features of a 
shoal body with a distinct fin, full water-lines, and 
cleanly swept diagonals, which mark all fast 
yachts of the present time. The plating, from the 
bottom of the keel to the deck, was of immadium, 
— a new alloy possessing great rigidity and ten- 
sile strength, — and the workmanship was equal 
to anything yet produced on either side of the 
water. Much has been said about the initial 
weakness and lack of structural strength in 
Shamrock II, but a close examination of the hull 
when it was demolished at the Erie Basin in 
November, 1903, failed to disclose either disin- 
tegration or strain, except in the case of some 
aluminum liners used between the frames and 
the plating. 

The second Lipton challenge was dated Octo- 
ber 2, 1900, and the first race was started on 



Lipton and the Three Shamrocks 313 

September 26, 1901 ; in the intervening time much 
had been done on this side of the water. A 
syndicate was formed within the New York 
Yacht Club, the members being Vice Commodore 
August Belmont, Oliver H. Payne, Frederick G. 
Bourne, James Stillman, and Henry Walters, and 
an order for a new yacht was placed with the 
builders of Defender and Columbia. This yacht, 
Constihition, launched on May 6, was in model 
an improved Defender^ the midship section re- 
sembling that yacht rather than Columbia. The 
good points of both yachts were combined in the 
new model, and to the eye her form showed an 
added finish and fairness. 

The construction was a radical departure in 
yacht work, the ordinary transverse ribs or frames 
at close intervals only extending to the upper 
part of the fin ; above this a series of longitudinal 
stringers was used, with " web " or " belt " frames, 
built up of sheet steel and light angles, at four 
times the distance apart of the ordinary frames, 
or 6 feet 8 inches. The structural weights of all 
Cup yachts are so closely guarded by their de- 
signers that no exact comparison between this 
and the ordinary method is possible, but it is gen- 
erally assumed that the added labor and expense 



314 American Yachting 

of the new method is fully justified by a gain 
both in weight and strength. 

Constitution was placed in the hands of W. 
Butler Duncan and Captain Rhodes, who manned 
her with an American crew, partly from Deer Isl- 
and and partly from the south shore of Long 
Island. At the same time E. D. Morgan volun- 
teered to take charge of Columbia, selecting Cap- 
tain Barr to aid him, with a Scandinavian crew. 
While showing well in the first races. Constitution 
in the end proved inferior to Columbia, and the. 
old boat was selected for the second time to 
defend the Cup. 

One of the important side issues of this match 
was the building of Independence by Thomas W. 
Lawson, of Boston, to aid in defending the Cup. 
Not being a member of the New York Yacht 
Club, Mr. Lawson's demand that he should be 
admitted to the trial races of the club on his own 
terms was refused by it ; and on his part he would 
not agree to enter the yacht nominally in the 
name of a member of the club to comply with the 
technicalities made necessary by the club's rules. 
Consequently, Independe7ice was able to meet the 
other two boats only in a few outside races. 

Her many hard battles with Constitution 



Lipton and the Three Shamrocks 315 

through the season had put Columbia in per- 
fect form, doing much to offset the fact that she 
was a two-year-old boat. Shamrock II had been 
compelled to do her trial sailing practically alone. 
She was handled by Captain Wringe and Captain 
Sycamore, both now familiar with the Sandy 
Hook course from previous experience. 

Five different trials were necessary before 
three races were sailed, all being won by Colum- 
bia, but by a small margin ; Shamrock II being 
at times the leader. The result of this match 
may be summarized by the statement that in the 
three races the yachts sailed 90 nautical miles in 
all, the time being 12 hours, 18 minutes, 3 sec- 
onds, and Columbia winning by 3 minutes 27 
seconds, actual, and 5 minutes 56 seconds, cor- 
rected, time. The average speed was conse- 
quently a little less than ^\ knots. 

Shamrock II was well handled in the main, but 
not so well as Columbia. The best work was in 
the manoeuvring at the start and when in close 
company on the wind ; off the wind she was by 
no means as well sailed as Columbia, whether 
under spinnaker or on a reach. In addition, sev- 
eral serious errors of judgment were committed, 
as compared with the almost faultless handling of 
Columbia, 



3i6 American Yachting 

For the third attempt Sir Thomas Lipton went 
back to Mr. Fife, challenging again in 1902 for 
a match in August of the following year, the 
general conditions being those of the previous 
matches. Again a syndicate was formed for the 
defence, the members being Elbert H. Gary, 
Clement A. Griscom, James J. Hill, William B. 
Leeds, Norman B. Ream, William Rockefeller, 
Cornelius Vanderbilt, Henry Walters, and P. A. 
B. Widener, and an order was placed with the 
Herreshoffs. Arrangements were made to fit out 
Columbia under E. D. Morgan's management, 
with Captain " Lem " Miller as skipper, and Con- 
stitution, under the management of Mr. Belmont, 
with Captain Rhodes in command. C. Oliver 
Iselin again consented to undertake the manage- 
ment of the new yacht. Reliance, selecting Captain 
Barr as skipper. 

Shamrock III, the new challenger, proved a 
beautifully modelled Fife cutter, of the latest 
semi-fin type, but in a way suggestive of Minerva 
in the fairness of her form and her moderate 
power. She was plated with nickel steel, which 
in turn was coated with a white enamel, giving 
a smooth, hard surface but little, if any, inferior 
to the polished bronze of all the defenders from 
Vigilant down. 



Lipton and the Three Shamrocks 317 

The question of the type to be selected by N. 
G. Herreshoff for his new model was generally 
discussed by yachtsmen in view of the develop- 
ment of the scow principle in the smaller classes, 
and it was no surprise when, in spite of all at- 
tempts at secrecy, it became known that he had 
made a radical departure from the sequence of 
Defender, Columbia, and ConstitutzoJi. On ap- 
proximately the same water-line, breadth, and 
draft, the depth of body was decreased, mak- 
ing less dead-rise, or a flatter floor, with a round 
bilge after the canoe form ; and with this midship 
section as a basis, the fore-and-aft lines were car- 
ried out very straight and flat, giving a full water- 
line and very long overhangs, nearly 28 feet 
forward and over 26 feet aft. While Reliance 
cannot be classed as a scow, she is a wide depar- 
ture from the more conventional forms of her 
predecessors. 

As one consequence of her extreme area of 
water-line, she was enabled to carry to advantage 
an excessive sail plan, in all 16,160 square feet, 
or 2000 in excess of that of Shamrock III, and 
as much as the combined areas of Puritan and 
Mayflower, The construction was identical with 
that of Constitution, Beginning very early in 



o 



1 8 American Yachting 



the season, these three yachts sailed many races, 
so that hulls, gear, and spars were thoroughly 
tested, crews were drilled, and sails tried and 
altered. Columbia failed to make as good a 
showing as when handled by Captain Barr ; Con- 
stitution showed an improvement over her first 
season, but not sufficient to redeem herself as a 
defender; and Reliance^ after doing good work 
in both light and heavy weather, was selected. 

The first attempt at a race was made on 
August 20, and the third race was sailed on 
September 3. Between these dates nine different 
attempts were made, and the yachts were started 
six times, three times failing to finish after half 
the course had been sailed. The weather on most 
occasions was light, the best race being that over 
the triangular course, in a light to moderate 
breeze, the two being in close company all day, 
and Reliance winning by a little over one minute, 
corrected time. Shamrock failed to score one 
race of the series, and in the final meeting she 
failed to finish, owing to a dense fog, though 
Reliance made the line in quick time. 

In this match the question of type and model 
was involved to a more important degree than 
in any previous one since the meeting of Genesta 



Lipfon and the Three Shamrocks 319 

and Puritan. Shamrock III embodied the prin- 
ciple so apparent in Mt7ierva, of moderate dimen- 
sions and form, and economy of driving power. 
While in one way an extreme, she was closely 
allied to the cutter type, and her success would 
have been followed by a reaction in favor of more 
normal ideas in designing. Reliance, on the 
other hand, as compared with Columbia, Consti- 
tution, and Shamrock III, represented a new and 
extreme step in the development of the racing 
machine, her whole form being confessedly bad 
for all purposes but Cup racing. The mere fact 
that she won three straight races has been gen- 
erally accepted as satisfactory proof that all fast 
yachts in the future must follow her, rather than 
Shamrock III, in form and power. 

The conditions of the races were such as to 
throw grave doubt on the accuracy of this popu- 
lar verdict, by which one boat is recognized as 
a great success, and the other as a complete fail- 
ure. As in all similar contests of recent years, 
the general management of the defender, as well 
as the individual work of her skipper at the wheel 
and in the care of his canvas and training and 
command of his crew, was immeasurably superior 
to that of the challenger. The latter was skil- 



320 American Yachting 

fully sailed, but there was not the care, the vigi- 
lance, and the attention to petty detail which was 
apparent in Reliance, just as it was formerly in 
Columbia and Defender. Then, too, the light 
weather was distinctly in favor of the yacht with 
the larger sails, as there was not a moment dur- 
ing the long series when she could not carry a 
club-topsail easily. 

The whole tendency of international racing 
in all classes has been to minimize the importance 
of model and construction, and to increase the 
influence of the three persons necessary to the 
success of every yacht, the designer, owner, and 
skipper. The most important part of the de- 
signer's work is not the mere shaping of the hull 
and the planning of the construction, as all work 
according to the same general principles and any 
improvement by one is soon adopted by others ; 
the main point lies above the deck, in providing 
a sail plan properly proportioned to the power of 
the hull, and a rig that, while reduced to the last 
limit of lightness, is at the same time strong 
enough to give the necessary support to the 
sails. In this work the mere copying of super- 
ficial details counts for nothing, but the designer 
must rely on himself and know that his rig is 



Lipton and the Three Shamrocks 321 

right, and that It is as Hght as it can be made. 
In this respect the work of N. G. Herreshoff 
stands alone in racing yachts, just as the work 
of Gary Smith does in cruising craft. 

Without an exception the owners of the differ- 
ent yachts which have attempted to regain the 
America Gup have known comparatively little 
about their yachts. Lieutenant Henn was a 
thorough sailor, an expert navigator and cruising 
yachtsman, and accustomed to racing after the 
old methods, but he never fully understood the 
great game of Gup racing. The others who pre- 
ceded or followed him were still less familiar with 
it, depending of necessity upon their skipper or 
some friend. From the era of the Burgess boats 
the defence of the Gup has been in the hands 
of educated men, wdth ample time and means 
at their disposal, who have made it their busi- 
ness to study Gup racing as a scientific game 
rather than a sport. General Paine was neither 
a naval architect nor a designer, and he never 
touched the wheel on any of his boats ; but his 
personality was one of the first causes of the 
success of Puritan^ Mayflower, and Volunteer. 
He assumed a certain part of the work, distinct 
from that of designer and skipper, he studied 



3 



2 2 American Yachting 



it until he knew it perfectly, and he made a 
success of it. Mr. Iselin has done the same in 
later years, living on his boats throughout the 
season, lea'ding, inspiring, and encouraging those 
under him. It is the same story in other races 
in the small classes. Success has been won 
not by mere merit of model, nor even by skill at 
the stick, but by laborious work on the part of 
the owner as well as the skipper throughout the 
season. 

There was a time when the work of the crack 
racing skipper was limited to the mere handling 
of a yacht in a race, but to-day it is different. 
There is still demanded quite as much skill in 
the handling of wheel or tiller, and quite as keen 
judgment of weather and as complete a knowl- 
edge of racing rules ; but even above these is 
the ability to develop the innate qualities of a 
new yacht and a new crew. More than ever 
before, the successful skipper must be a practi- 
cal engineer in a broad sense, having some idea 
of the strains to which his rig will be subjected, 
and being able to keep in perfect tune the deli- 
cate machine with which the designer has pro- 
vided him. 



CHAPTER XX 

RACING AND CRUISING IN SMALL YACHTS 

The Genesta challenge and the building of 
Priscilla and Puritan brought yachting into 
general prominence throughout the whole coun- 
try, and the subsequent victory of the " Yankee " 
yacht established the sport forever on a national, 
in place of a local, foundation. The immediate 
stimulus was felt in those localities where yacht- 
ing was already established, and in others where 
the natural conditions favored it ; and a deep 
and lasting interest was awakened among the 
people at large in localities where the lack of 
suitable water made direct participation impossi- 
ble. There was aroused on the part of the whole 
nation a feeling of pride in its patriotic yachts- 
men, its skilful designers and bold sailors who had 
added to the long list of naval victories of the 
past a new and worthy record in a peaceful, 
but none the less serious and important, contest. 

The match between Spruce and Ethelwynn 
ten years later, terminating in another victory, 

323 



324 American Yachting 

extended the work by making yachting possible 
in localities where it was previously unknown. 
The direct effects of the America Cup contests 
were naturally limited to the yacht proper, decked 
craft of from 30 to 40 feet water-line upward, and 
navigable only in a couple of fathoms of water; 
but the fight of the 15-footers showed that quite 
as good racing was possible in yachts drawing 
but 6 inches at anchor and sailing with board 
down in 4 or 5 feet at most. 

The publicity given to the sport by the daily 
press, and the large amount of technical detail 
published by the special yachting journals, aided 
greatly in introducing the sport in many remote 
and isolated localities. 

At the present time the small yacht is quite 
as much a national institution as her larger sis- 
ter, as numerous in point of mere numbers, and 
demanding the same high qualifications on the 
part of owner, designer, and builder. While the 
once universal cat-boat, with her simple and 
primitive rig and crude fittings, was nothing 
more than a " sail-boat," — to use a familiar term, 
— the modern small boat is in every sense a yacht. 
The rules under which small yachts are designed 
and raced are the same, or, if different, quite as 



Racing and Cruising in Small Yachts 325 

complete and elaborate as those of the largest 
classes. The design of a successful racing yacht 
of 15 or 20 feet measurement demands as much 
ability and study as that of a 70-footer ; in fact, 
it is to the small craft exclusively that is due 
the very complicated and elaborate study of the 
scow type which now figures so prominently 
in all designing. The construction of the small 
yacht is no longer intrusted to any longshore 
boat-builder, but every detail is planned and 
studied with the same care as in the larger 
classes; and the best results yet obtained have 
been by the employment of the same elaborate 
calculations of strains and strength of materials 
that are necessary in the case of a big bridge 
or other important structure. While the de- 
mand for improvement in the small classes has 
produced many competent designers and build- 
ers among the professionals, the most original 
and successful work, both in designing and build- 
ing, has been done by amateurs who are self- 
educated in yachting. 

Until a comparatively recent date all materials 
and fittings were adapted only for yachts of 
medium and large size; the small sloops and 
cat-boats were rigged, fitted, and canvased, not 



326 American Yachting 

with what was suitable for them, but with what 
could be best adapted from material intended 
for larger craft. The rapid development of the 
sailing canoe which took place in the early 
eighties wrought a great improvement in this 
respect, as it introduced many new methods of 
construction, and led to the regular manufacture 
of a distinct line of small blocks, fittings, cord- 
age, and sail-cloth. The first important and ex- 
tensive experiments in hollow spars were made 
by canoeists ; and they, too, were the first to use 
aluminum at a time when its cost and scarcity 
made such experiments very difficult. 

The small racing and cruising boats introduced 
by some of the older canoeists in the early nine- 
ties, the immediate predecessors of the 15-foot 
class, led to material improvements in design and 
construction, to a larger class of hollow spars, and 
to the introduction of many new and necessary 
fittings. To this class is directly due the produc- 
tion of wooden blocks of small size but equal in 
quality to those in use on large yachts, and also 
the improvements in materials for small sails and 
in the cutting and making of such sails by the 
sailmakers. 

With the way thus paved by canoeing, the 



Racing and Cruising in Small Yachts 327 

general use of the 15-footer in 1896 was soon fol- 
lowed by the systematic manufacture of every 
detail of yachting equipment in miniature, until 
at the present time the owner of the smallest rac- 
ing or cruising yacht may fit and rig her as per- 
fectly as though she were a 90-footer. 

The successful racing of a sand-bag boat called 
for a high degree of skill and nerve on the part of 
the skipper; and at least a few of his numerous 
crew were required to possess other qualifications 
than mere weight and agility in tossing sand-bags. 
At the same time racing was in a crude and primi- 
tive condition, both as to rules and general usage, 
and as to those details outside of actual handling 
of the stick, which are now indispensable to suc- 
cess. Racing in the small classes to-day is an art, 
governed by the same rules and usages as in the 
largest yachts, and acquired only by long and care- 
ful study in addition to some natural ability. 

Just how much an amateur must know of prac- 
tical designing, construction, rigging, and sail- 
making to make him a successful skipper is an 
open question, much depending on circumstances ; 
but it is a fact beyond dispute that while some 
may succeed through sheer ability in sailing, the 
more a man knows about his boat, the better he 



328 American Yachting 

will be able to sail her. Great as it may be, his 
skill at the stick and sheet will some day be 
matched against that of another as skilful as he 
in these matters and who has at the same time 
designed and built his own boat, rigged her, and 
tried her until he knows her every weakness. 

The conditions of modern yachting, especially 
in the small classes, are such as to induce the 
Corinthian sailor, if at all in love with the sport, 
to study it in every branch. There are many who 
never rest content until they are able to design, 
build, rig, and sail their own boats ; and others 
who, without going quite so far, are fully qualified 
to discuss a design with the designer, to criticise 
the construction as it progresses, and to make 
suggestions, and in the end to know the boat so 
thoroughly that they can develop all the speed 
of which she is capable. 

The growth of the literature of yachting, both 
periodical and that of a more permanent nature, 
has been in proportion to the development of the 
sport; and the modern yachtsman's library includes 
everything, from a simple handbook instructing 
the beginner in the building of a skipjack or 
cheap one-design boat, up to elaborate treatises 
on design and navigation. With the aid thus 



Racing and Cruising in Small Yac/jis 329 

afforded, and the facility with which all supplies 
and materials may be obtained, the number of 
really skilful designers and builders has increased 
until there is hardly a lake or a broad stretch of 
river in any well-populated section which does 
not boast of its small yachts and, perhaps, of a 
club and fleet of more than local reputation. The 
demand for fast yachts and the competition and 
stimulus of the Corinthian owner and designer 
have done much to improve the work of the pro- 
fessional builder, as is well shown on the Minnesota 
and Wisconsin lakes. Some of the fastest yachts 
are purely of amateur design, while a really very 
high class of light construction is turned out by 
men who were not originally boat-builders, but 
Scandinavian sailors of some natural ability who, 
with the aid of amateur yachtsmen, have in time 
mastered the art of building. 

The rules and conditions for the Seawanhaka 
cup and other trophies of the smaller classes were 
originally framed with great care by representa- 
tives of different nations and embody the accepted 
usage of the yachting world. These rules and con- 
ditions have been widely distributed among such 
clubs, in all parts of the country, as might be 
desirous of sending yachts to the trial races, the 



-'SO American Yachting 



o 



result being that a very high standard of racing 
ethics is generally recognized. 

In any locality where water, even in a compara- 
tively limited area, is to be found, good yachting 
is possible to those who really love it With a 
pond or small lake which will admit of a triangle 
of half-mile sides and having a minimum depth of 
even five feet, there can be established a fleet of 
any one of several different types in which the 
closest possible racing may be had. The small 
scow of about 12 feet water-line, such as may be 
built in a one-design class for $50 each, will give 
as hot racing as a pair of 90-footers ; and each 
owner can find ample scope for his industry and 
intelligence in maintaining his boat and rig in 
perfect condition and getting a little more out of 
both than any of his competitors can do with 
theirs. 

If the water is such as to afford opportunities 
for pleasure sailing or fishing, or if ladies are to 
be carried, a model with some freeboard and sheer, 
such as the first 15-fcoters, or the newer 17-footers, 
of the Royal St. Lawrence Yacht Club, is prefera- 
ble, — smart, able little boats, drier and more com- 
fortable than the fiat, flush-decked scow, and but 
little slower. Fitted with a metal centre-board, 



Racing and Cruising in Small Yacbis 331 

either of these types may be permanently moored 
in less than a foot of water, and may be sailed 
in a depth of five feet, if no more can be had. 
Where deeper water permits, the same models, 
fitted with fin keels, drawing perhaps four feet at 
all times, offer certain advantages. Where abso- 
lutely necessary, the centre-board boats may be 
housed or drawn up on the beach with a simple 
set of ways. 

With a depth of upward of seven feet over the 
sailing course, the yachts may be large enough 
to compete in association or inter-club races or 
for the Seawanhaka cup, opening a much broader 
field of sport, and bringing the club into close 
contact with other organizations. In many cases 
the one-design class will be found the most satis- 
factory, the cost being reduced and the interest 
in the racing being more sustained. Where the 
sailing men are also interested in designing, the 
restricted class offers a scope for amateur talent 
and at the same time some limitation is placed on 
that rapid outbuilding which will sooner or later 
kill the class. Where the club aspires to other 
than local races, the class must, as a rule, be an 
open one, under only such general conditions as 
govern the local association or some special trophy. 



332 American Yachting 

Where the local yachting ground communi- 
cates with other waters, the opportunities for the 
sport are greatly extended and cruising comes 
in as a rule. Where depth, both on the moor- 
ing ground and the sailing course, is limited as 
before, or where there are few facilities for haul- 
ing up, it may be necessary to adhere to the 
shoal-draft hull with centre-board ; but even in 
this case a well-designed boat, with adequate 
freeboard and sheer and well-proportioned rig 
and ballast, should be fit for cruising on moder- 
ately open water. Even under these conditions 
the small scows are sometimes used for a purely 
racing class, being able and seaworthy enough, 
though wet and uncomfortable ; but for a small 
and inexpensive class on open water the dory 
type has much to recommend it. These boats 
are built complete with mainsail and jib for 
$40 to $50; and while giving good racing in a 
one-design class, they are also fitted for fishing, 
rowing, and afternoon sailing, being both safer 
and more comfortable, especially for ladies, than 
the scow. 

Where light draft is important, as in so many 
locations, on the anchorage grounds and in cer- 
tain places, while an able model is required for 



Racing and Cruising in Small Yachts 2>2>2> 




Cape Cod Cat-boat. 



334 American Yachting 

open and rough water, the Cape Cod cat-boat, — 
which, by the way, is now generally a sloop, — 
has many advantages in point of speed, handiness, 
and safety. It has been improved on in some 
modern types, but in its primitive form, as built 
twenty years ago, it was the best centre-board 
boat afloat. In even the smaller sizes, of 17 to 
18 feet, a small cuddy is possible, giving a dry 
stowage for clothes and bedding and space for 
two to sleep, and with 3 or 4 feet more length 
a good little cabin may be had, though the inevi-. 
table centre-board trunk partly spoils it. 

With a depth of 5 or 6 feet and upward to 
moor in, the keel type becomes possible, — the 
nearer to the primitive form of the first knock- 
about, the better for general use. If racing is 
the sole object, the class may be an open one, 
of 18 or 21 feet under the old Seawanhaka rule; 
a restricted one, such as the knockabout ; or a one- 
design, — usually the cheapest. In many cases 
it is more desirable that the boats shall be capa- 
ble of use in day sailing and week-end or longer 
cruises, for which the waters are fitted, as well 
as for racing, — to which end the knockabout 
rules or similar restrictions will be necessary to 
exclude freaks and racing machines. 



Racing and Cruising in Small Yachts 335 

The general tendency of yachting is to foster 
speed at the expense of all other qualities ; and 
even where restrictions are in use, the yachts 
are commonly designed for racing first, with 
cruising as incidental. There are many yachts- 
men, however, whose chief joy is in cruising 
in small craft, either single-handed or with one 
or two companions. To these a wide choice of 
craft is open. There are always to be found some 
ex-racers that are sufficiently good in model and 
strong in construction to warrant some outlay 
in alteration and refitting ; the design perhaps 
being good for cruising, the planking of mahog- 
any, the sails capable of alteration, and the fit- 
tings of bronze. When it comes to building, 
there are always good designs available in the 
yachting journals, the owner using his own dis- 
cretion in arranging the cabin and altering the 
details to his special use. Even where cruising 
is the main end, it is desirable if in any way 
practicable, to build to the limits of some estab- 
lished class, as it is very likely that sooner or 
later the owner may wish to do a little racing, 
or he may have a chance to sell to some one 
who cares for both racing and cruising. It is 
a very common thing for even experienced 



33<^ American Yachting 

yachtsmen to build without regard to class 
limits because they have no idea of racing, 
when with a little thought and planning the 
design might have been conformed to a class. 
Ultimately the boat proves fast and the owner 
is seized with the racing fever, but through some 
slight excess of dimensions the yacht cannot 
enter in a class. 

In every locality where yachts are at all numer- 
ous there is always a demand for good Corin- 
thians; and the mere fact that a man does not 
own a yacht, and does not know how to sail, is 
of itself no bar to the enjoyment of the sport. 
There are always owners who are on the look- 
out for good material, no matter how raw, pro- 
vided it is good. If the learner is willing to 
have nothing to say except to ask absolutely 
necessary questions, to observe carefully what 
goes on about him, to work hard at whatever 
he is told to do, and to learn all the little things 
thoroughly as they present themselves, he will 
never be a nuisance, and he will soon be able 
to help in earnest. He must take things as 
they come, never grumbling at those numerous 
discomforts and inconveniences which are inevi- 
table; he must do a full share of the work will- 



Racing and Cruising in Small Yacbis 337 

ingly ; and he must never worry about getting 
back ashore. If really ambitious, he can pick 
up a good deal by reading and study that will 
help him in applying the everyday work as an 
amateur deck hand to the broader knowledge 
of yachting in all its branches. 

The racing side of yachting has always been 
the more prominent and conspicuous, and the 
specialization of racing craft in recent years has 
insured for them almost a monopoly of the atten- 
tion of designers ; at the same time there has 
been a great improvement in cruising yachts and 
a multiplication of sizes and types. The range of 
cruising craft at the present time extends from 
the canoe yawl or canoe yacht of 17 or 18 feet 
length, easily handled by any experienced boy, and 
giving room for a companion of similar Spartan 
tastes, up to the auxiliary of several hundred tons ; 
each separate size, down to the smallest, being 
designed by experts in its particular class, built 
with the same skill as is employed in racing 
yachts, and fitted with parts and gear specially 
designed and made for it. The man who really 
knows what he wants in the way of a cruising 
yacht, small or large, can find it to perfection, and 
is no longer compelled to put up with something 



33^ American Yachting 

that is unsuitable in size, type, and fitting for his 
special work. 

Yacht racing is of necessity a technical sport, 
to be followed successfully only by those thor- 
oughly familiar with a complicated mass of tech- 
nical detail. The practical experience of a century 
of yacht racing is to-day crystallized in the form 
of some two score of sailing rules, those of Amer- 
ica, Great Britain, and other countries having a 
common origin and being closely identical. No 
man should attempt either the management of 
racing as one of a committee, or the sailing of a 
yacht in a race, until he is thoroughly familiar 
with the particular set of rules in use, and pre- 
pared to abide by them to the last letter. The 
plea is sometimes made that, as yacht racing is 
only followed for pleasure, the rules should be as 
few and simple as possible and less rigidly en- 
forced than in matters of business. Such a 
course, if followed, will eventually result in dis- 
cord and ill feeling and the end of all sport. A 
long experience has proved that only through a 
high standard of rules, so rigidly enforced as to 
secure their observance by all parties, can the 
sport be kept free . from those dissensions which 
have at times been so harmful. 



CHAPTER XXI 

STEAM YACHTING IN AMERICA 

The men who made American yachting were 
essentially seamen, loving the sea for itself and 
their yachts as a means of controlling and com- 
manding its mighty power. To them sail was 
everything, and the thought of employing any 
such mechanical means as steam in their battle 
with Neptune w^as utterly foreign to their ideal of 
yachting. The Stevens family was one of the 
leaders in the experimental development of steam 
navigation and later in its commercial develop- 
ment. While following yachting as a pleasure, 
they were at the same time busy with experimen- 
tal work in steam engineering and in both the 
business and technical side of steamboat work 
on the Delaware and the Hudson ; but there is 
no record of any proposal on their part to adapt 
steam to purely pleasure purposes. 

The origin of the steam yacht is due to men 
who cared little for yachting, but were commer- 
cially interested in steam navigation. What was 

339 



340 American Yachting 

nominally a very extensive venture for the day 
was the cruise of the " steam yacht " North 
Star, built in 1852 for Commodore Vanderbilt, 
in which, accompanied by a party of twenty-five 
relatives and friends, he made a cruise of six 
months' duration in the following year, visiting 
many European ports. The North Star was 
really a wooden side-wheel passenger steamer of 
2000 tons, and though specially built and fitted 
for this cruise, she was afterward used in regular 
passenger service. The whole venture was rather 
the personally conducted tour of a wealthy man 
than a yacht cruise in the true sense, and the 
story written by the clergyman who accompanied 
the expedition as scribe and chronicler is remark- 
able for its utter dearth of yachting flavor. 

In 1854 another wealthy ship-owner, William 
H. Aspinwall, of New York, president of the 
Pacific Mail Steamship Company, had built for 
a special purpose a small experimental steamer, 
the Firefly. She was of wood, 97 feet 8 inches 
over all, 19 feet in breadth, 5 feet 2 inches in 
depth, and drew 3 feet 9 inches. She was built 
by Smith & Dimon, ship-builders, and was fitted 
with an experimental device, the invention of a 
Frenchman, — a paddle-wheel enclosed in an air- 



steam Yacbtuig in America 341 

tight box in the centre of the hull. The experi- 
ment was a failure and Mr. Aspinwall had the 
vessel fitted up as a yacht, her power being the 
oscillating marine engine with feathering paddle 
and a locomotive boiler. While she was naturally 
used for cruising, one important use seems to have 
been that of so many modern steam yachts, as a 
private ferry-boat between her owner's home, on 
Staten Island, and New York City. 

Ten years later a steam pleasure vessel was 
planned and built for Leonard W. Jerome, a mem- 
ber of the New York Yacht Club and an owner 
of sailing yachts. The Clarita, built by Law- 
rence & Foulks, at Williamsburg, was of wood, 
125 feet over all, 121 feet 9 inches water-line, 22 
feet in breadth, 9 feet in depth, 1 1 feet 6 inches in 
draft, and of 231 tons. Her engines were built by 
the Novelty Iron Works, — two cylinders, 22 by 
22 inches, with a screw 9 feet 6 inches in diameter. 
In the same year R. F. Loper, the yacht model- 
ler, of Stonington, Connecticut, so well known 
from his sailing yachts, modelled the steam yacht 
Wave, and she was built by Reaney & Neafie, 
in Philadelphia. Her dimensions were : length 
over all, ^'] feet; breadth, 19 feet 6 inches; 
depth, 7 feet; draft, 5 feet; with two cylinders. 



342 American Yachting 

high pressure, each 12 by 18 inches, driving a 
screw. 

In 1868 Jacob Lorillard, one of the family of 
yachtsmen, modelled and had built for his own 
use a steam yacht, the second Firefly, of 67 feet 
over-all length, 62 feet water-line, 13 feet breadth, 
and 5 feet draft, with a screw, — the first of a 
large number of steam yachts, of gradually in- 
creasing size, which owe their origin to him. 

Mr. Aspinwall's interest in steam yachts, though 
apparently accidental, was by no means transient. 
The Firefly was in course of time sold to the 
United States Coast Survey; and in 1871 she was 
replaced by the Day Dream, of composite con- 
struction, built at the Continental Iron Works, in 
Brooklyn, her length over all being 115 feet ; water- 
line, 109 feet; breadth, 19 feet 6 inches; depth, 
6 feet; draft, 7 feet. Her engines, vertical con- 
densing, had two cylinders 14 by 14 inches, driv- 
ing a screw 7 feet 6 inches in diameter. In 1873 
the Ideal was modelled and built by J. B. Van 
Deusen for Theodore A. Havemeyer and Hugo 
Fritsch ; in the same year the America was de- 
signed by Henry Steers and built at Greenpoint 
for Henry N. Smith; in 1875 the Ocean Gem was 
built by William Force, at Keyport, New Jersey, 



steam Yacbting in America 343 

for R. E. Ricker. The American Yacht List of 
1874 records twenty-one steam yachts, of which 
one was EngHsh and one French, while several 
were merely small launches. 

About 1876 the Herreshoffs began the build- 
ing of small open and cabin launches, their work 
even then being characterized by originality and 
real merit. They perfected a light and compact 
compound launch engine and a coil boiler, also 
very light and compact ; this plant being installed 
in hulls of appropriate dimensions and good model, 
and of a special construction materially lighter 
and in some ways stronger than the established 
practice. These hulls were built of many small 
parts, each of the proper w^ood, carefully fitted 
and fastened, making a very different boat from 
the ordinary launch, with heavy frames far apart 
and wide single-skin planking heavily calked. 
The business was gradually extended to include 
some of the first torpedo-boats, and then cabin 
yachts of sizes up to one hundred feet, and finally 
into a larger size of river steam yacht. The Her- 
reshoff steam yachts have been distinguished from 
their origin down to the present time by light 
construction of hull, engines, and boilers, speed 
and many good qualities, with a total absence 



344 American Yachting 

of that grace and style which is commonly con- 
sidered one of the essential attributes of a yacht. 

The iron steam yacht of sea-going type was 
first introduced about 1880 and soon became very 
popular, the owners of the old racing schooners 
by degrees going in for steam, with its added 
speed and comfort ; while many new recruits were 
attracted to the ranks of yachting by the fascina- 
tion of owning a private steam vessel in which 
luxuries that were impossible in the sailing yacht 
might be had without the usually attendant incon- 
veniences and discomforts of yachting. 

The early steam yachts were in many respects 
defective. They were not the product of any delib- 
erate system of designing, but were mainly built 
from models cut by men familiar only with sailing 
yachts, and whose adaptation of sailing forms to 
steam-yacht practice often produced grotesque 
results. Like the sailing models, the hulls were 
lacking in depth, they had very little freeboard, 
and, worst of all, they were built with a long cabin 
trunk that was in itself a serious element of dan- 
ger in rough water and at the same time robbed 
the hull of the necessary strength given by a flush 
deck and continuous deck beams in the centre of 
the vessel. 



steam Yachting in America 345 

As the steam yacht approached the dignity of 
a permanent institution, throughout the eighties, 
and its special adherents began to appear in num- 
bers in every yacht club, the demand for speed 
became apparent. The effort on the part of mod- 
ellers and builders to attain speeds well above 
the current practice, though in most cases unsuc- 
cessful, had a decidedly bad influence on the 
type of yacht produced. The early British steam 
yachts resembled their sailing sisters in solidity 
of construction and simplicity of finish, and were, 
above all else, eminently seaworthy. In the 
American steam yacht, however, the builder was 
called on first for large rooms, with elaborate 
furniture and fittings and a great weight of 
plumbing, marble steps, and baths, and similar 
inappropriate luxuries ; and after this he was ex- 
pected to realize a speed of fifteen to eighteen 
knots. The demands for cabin space naturally 
cut down the room left for machinery, boilers, 
and coal, the consequence being that powerful 
engines were crowded into spaces which left no 
room for the firemen and engine-room force, the 
bunker capacity was limited, and neither officers 
nor crew had decent living space. Even where 
the work of planning was intrusted to a compe- 



34^ American Yachting 

tent yacht designer, the Impossible demands of 
the owner made a partial failure almost inevita- 
ble ; and where, as was commonly the case, no 
designer was consulted, the plans being produced 
by the combined talent of the skipper and some 
builder, the result was much worse. 

About 1885 a new influence was felt through 
the importation by American yachtsmen of steam 
yachts built on the Clyde, the great centre of this 
industry. These yachts, such as Amy, 639 tons, 
were designed by professional yacht designers, 
like St. Clare J. Byrne and George L. Watson, 
who had made a distinct specialty of them ; and 
they were originally built to the orders of experi- 
enced yachtsmen, mostly a conservative class of 
deep-sea cruisers. The yachts were remarkably 
successful vessels, and their faults in American 
eyes were due to the difference in requirements. 
They had not the speed demanded on short 
spurts between New York and Newport; the 
apartments were sometimes small, being intended 
mainly for sea cruising in a damp and cool cli- 
mate; the hatches, skylights, and port-holes did 
not give sufHcient air and light for Long Island 
Sound in summer. The finish, though usually 
rich and elegant and admirably fitted for a yacht. 



steam Yachting in America 347 

with oak, walnut, mahogany, and teak joiner-work 
and leather upholstery, was entirely too plain for 
the ladies of the owner's family, who preferred 
carved and gilded woodwork, and a profusion of 
silken upholstery, panelling, and draperies, re- 
gardless of the effects of dust, dampness, and salt 
air on such a style of decoration in a vessel. 

After the failure of several ambitious attempts 
in steam yacht-building, American owners began 
to import British steam yachts, which could be 
bought at a price far below that of building on 
the Delaware ; but when once on this side, these 
same craft were usually reconstructed at a very 
great expense to meet the ideas of the new own- 
ers. This Clyde-ward movement was viewed 
with dismay by American builders, and attempts 
were made to stop it by the application of exist- 
ing laws originally intended to affect only mer- 
chant vessels engaged in actual trade. In 1891 
the steam yacht Conqueror, imported from Eng- 
land by F. W. Vanderbilt, was seized by the 
United States government in New York Har- 
bor and placed in the custody of United States 
marshals, while her owner brought suit for her 
recovery. In this he was successful, compelling 
the government to relinquish the yacht after a 



348 American Yachting 

long lawsuit. The failure of this and similar 
attempts sent the American builders to Con- 
gress; and after several years of agitation the 
noted Payne Bill was passed in 1897, practically 
prohibiting the use of a foreign-built yacht by an 
American citizen in American waters. The bill, 
however, was so faultily drawn that it failed to 
effect its purpose, and though still a law it has 
never been enforced. 

Not only has the purchase of second-hand 
British yachts, both sail and steam, continued 
with only a slight interruption following the 
enactment of the law, but many American own- 
ers have gone to Mr. Watson for steam yachts 
of a size, speed, and elegance of appointment 
previously unknown, the vessels all being built 
on the Clyde. Among them are such craft as 
Mayflower^ Nahma^ Varuna^ and Lysistrata, 

For some years past the designing of steam 
yachts has been in the hands of American 
designers, — Cary Smith, Gardner, Wintringham, 
Gielow, Seabury, and others, — and with a better 
understanding of the essential limitations of the 
problem on the part of owners a great improve- 
ment has been made. There have been com- 
paratively few attempts to compete with British 



steam Yachting in America 349 

designers in the field of sea-going yachts, the 
demand for this type being limited on the part 
of American yachtsmen ; but a distinctive Ameri- 
can type has been produced in such yachts as 
Kl nawha II, Hauoli I and //, Kismet, and Celt, 
The type is designed for summer use about 
Long Island Sound and the eastern coast as 
far as Mount Desert, but mainly for short runs, 
such as the well-travelled route between New 
York and Newport, and for a sort of house-boat 
service in the immediate vicinity of New York 
city, picking up the owner in the afternoon and 
carrying him up the Hudson, outside Sandy 
Hook, or to Larchmont or Oyster Bay over 
night and landing him in New York early the 
following morning. A modification of this latter 
service is sometimes demanded, the owner merely 
using the yacht to carry him between home and 
office, living on shore at night. 

The characteristics of this type are a speed of 
upward of twenty knots in the larger sizes, — the 
faster the better, — on such dimensions and dis- 
placement as will give large apartments for the 
owner, ample space for the engines, a reasonable 
bunker capacity, and will admit of a consider- 
able weight of auxiliary machinery, such as the 



350 American Yachting 

electric lighting plant, ventilating, machinery, etc. 
The boiler question is simplified by the use of 
any one of several good makes of water-tube 
boilers, of compact form and light weight as 
compared with the old Scotch boiler. The en- 
gines, usually triple expansion, and in increas- 
ing number driving twin screws, are of special 
designs, — modifications of the torpedo-boat type, 
in which a certain amount of weight has been 
added to gain durability and to lessen the danger 
of an accidental breakdown. 

Special attention is given to the arrangement. 
There is liberal headroom both below deck and 
in the deck houses, with many and large open- 
ings for light and air, and special provisions for 
forced ventilation ; the division of space is such 
as to give large and comfortable state-rooms for 
the owner and his family, and usually a dining 
room of generous proportions for entertaining. 
The accompaniment to this, the galleys and pan- 
tries, are on a corresponding scale, with ample 
store-rooms and ice-boxes. As an important fac- 
tor in the domestic economy of the yacht which 
owners now generally recognize, not only the 
officers, but the petty officers and crew, are well 
berthed in roomy and well-ventilated quarters. 



steam Yacbting in America 351 

with a liberal provision of bath-rooms and wash- 
stands. The plumbing of such a yacht is on a 
very extensive scale, running water, both cold 
and hot, and from the tanks or the sea, being 
piped to all parts, even the forecastle, with auto- 
matic waste and drainage system quite equal to 
that of a house on land with water main and 
sewer connections. While this type may to a 
certain extent be classed as but a cabin launch 
of extreme size, it is, nevertheless, of seaworthy 
form, and fitted to meet any weather which it 
is likely to encounter in its ordinary coasting 
service. 

American yachtsmen, especially those doing 
business in New York, were quick to appreciate 
the great advantage which a private yacht has 
over all other means of transit, and from the 
days of the Firefly all types of steam yachts 
have been used for this purpose within a radius 
of fifty miles of the city. At the present 
time it is one of the sights of New York 
Harbor between May and November, from 8 to 
10 A.M. and 3 to 5 P.M., when a procession 
of steam yachts of all sizes and speeds moves 
down the Hudson and the East rivers to the 
Battery Landing and other convenient points, 



352 American Yachting 

starting up again at the latter hours. The 
yachtsman is wakened in his suburban home 
at 8 o'clock. Donning a bath robe, he makes his 
way to the landing float, dives over, and after 
a short swim is at the companion-ladder of his 
yacht out in the stream. His clothing awaits 
him in a special apartment in the deck house, 
convenient to the gangway, with tiled floor and 
bath-tub for his fresh-water shower; by the time 
he has begun to dress, the anchor is off the 
ground and the yacht under way; breakfast is 
ready for him when his toilet is completed ; and 
by the time he has disposed of it and skimmed 
through the morning papers the yacht has 
stopped and the launch is ready at the gang- 
w^ay to land him somewhere within a few blocks 
of his city office. 

Many of the yachts used for this ferry service 
in the past were manifestly unfitted for it, some of 
them through a size that fitted them for a cruise 
around the world had they been properly de- 
signed, but which made them unsafe to them- 
selves and to the other craft in Hell Gate, the 
East and the Hudson rivers abreast the city. 
Some large yachts are still used for this daily 
service as well as for longer runs, but there has 



steam Yacbting in America 353 

come into use of late years a special type of 
large speed launch, of 75 to 100 feet in length, 
with a small saloon, state-room, and galley for 
short cruises, but used mainly for daily runs of 
one or two hours' duration between home and 
office. Used as an auxiliary to a large cruising 
yacht, the twenty-mile launch does all the fast 
service, and the larger craft may consequently be 
designed for a sea speed of twelve to fifteen knots, 
giving greatly superior accommodation and en- 
larged radius of steaming at a less cost than the 
eio:hteen-knot cruiser. 

The first steam launches were of limited utility, 
the government regulations placing them on the 
same footing as large passenger steamers and 
requiring licensed officers, both master and en- 
gineer. At the same time the machinery was heavy 
and bulky and could be placed only in the centre 
of the hull. Though the steam launch was in 
quite extensive use in the early eighties, it was at 
best an incomplete development. About 1885 a 
new power was introduced in the " naphtha en- 
gine," a small steam-engine of very simple con- 
struction, with a light coil boiler, naphtha from a 
tank in the bow being piped to the boiler, where 
it was burned under the coil, a part of the supply 

2A 



354 American Yachting 

being, at the same time, vaporized within the coil. 
This device had many advantages: it was free 
from government restriction ; from its small size 
and light weight it could be placed in the ex- 
treme after end of a 12-foot boat ; and the opera- 
tion was so simple that it was readily mastered 
by any one of ordinary intelligence without a spe- 
cial knowledge of machinery and boilers. 

The first use of the new power was in yacht 
boats, — gigs, cutters, and even dinghies being fit- 
ted up. Certain and reliable in its action under al- 
most any conditions, the " naphtha engine " never 
tired, no matter how long the row from the yacht 
to the shore, or how heavy the wind and sea ; and 
it required but one hand to run it, where the gig 
of an ordinary schooner yacht might require four 
or five hands for a long pull, leaving a small crew 
on board. Its use did not stop here, as it was 
soon installed in pleasure launches of 30 feet 
or so and upward, either open or cabin. These 
boats found ready favor, not only with old yachts- 
men, but with many whose tastes lay in the direc- 
tion of the water but who were unable to use a 
sailing yacht. Year by year they have increased 
in number, in size, and in quality, until for some 
years past they have formed a very important 
division of the pleasure fleet. 



steam Yachting in America 355 

A still more recent development is the " explo- 
sion motor," "gasoline motor," "gas engine," or 
"internal-combustion motor," as it is called, in 
which the gasoline or similar hydro-carbon used 
for fuel is injected into the cylinder with a mix- 
ture of air and there exploded by the electric 
spark, thus doing away with boiler, furnace, and 
actual fire in the vessel. Though yet in its in- 
fancy in marine work, the gasoline motor is used 
almost all over the world in the propulsion of 
yachts and other craft up to 75 feet in length, 
the limit in size and power of engine and size of 
hull increasing every year. 

The limited size and weight, the very compact 
form, the absence of fire, and the use of liquid 
fuel piped from a tank which may be placed at 
any distance from the motor, make this by far the 
most convenient power yet put in a vessel ; and 
it is applied to-day to all classes, from the yacht 
dinghy, the small open launch, and the cabin 
launch, up to cabin craft of size and power 
that fit them for long cruises on open water. 

There was a time, a few years ago, when the 
depressed condition of yacht racing, the growing 
demands on the time of even wealthy Americans, 
and the advantages of the power launch in point 



35^ American Yachting 

of speed, excitement, and certainty of reaching port 
at a given time, worked toward the extinction of 
the sailing cruiser. Curiously enough, the intro- 
duction of the gasoline motor has operated to 
counteract this, and the outlook for real cruising 
in yachts of moderate size is more promising 
than at any time for many years. This motor is 
specially adapted for installation in the ordinary 
model of cruising yacht, a small two-bladed screw 
working in an aperture cut in the deadwood, 
while the motor itself is placed beneath the cock- 
pit, or in a similar position in the run where the 
space is practically useless. As long as the wind 
serves, the yacht is under sail, with no smokestack 
to suggest any other power. When the wind drops, 
the gasoline motor is at once started and the can- 
vas stowed at leisure. A very large number of 
sailing yachts, from the old Cup defender Puritan 
down to the smaller sizes of cat-boats, have been 
recently converted to auxiliaries with no altera- 
tion of hull or rig other than the sacrifice of a 
small amount of space under the cockpit, at best 
useful only for stowage. Some of the old 40-foot- 
ers, for some years used for cruising, have been 
converted in the same way into very serviceable 
auxiliaries. 



steam Yachting in America 357 

Even better results are attained as a rule 
when the yacht, whatever her size, is specially 
designed as an auxiliary; and many such craft, 
"P to 75 ^^^t water-line, have been built since 
1 90 1. Such a yacht as Tekla, designed in 1902 
by Gary Smith, of 77 feet water-line, with steel 
hull, is a good example of the new type. She is 
in all respects a sailing schooner, but fitted wuth 
a Standard gasoline motor of 75 horse-power. 
With this power she can be got under way in 
an instant, no time being lost in firing up and 
raising steam. As long as there is wind, she is 
a sailing vessel ; but in a calm or light head 
wind and contrary tide the motor is started, 
driving her at a speed that insures a punctual 
return to port. From this size downward to 
the single-hander of 18 to 20 feet water-line the 
gasoline motor is applicable, and its effect is 
already seen in an appreciable increase in the 
number of true sailing yachts as compared with 
the launches. 

There is a gradual increase in the number 
of Americans who are learning to enjoy them- 
selves according to the English plan, abandon- 
ing business when they are once assured of a 
reasonable fixed income, and devoting them- 



35^ American Yachting 

selves to sport or travel. To this class the 
gasoline auxiliary already appeals through its 
adaptability to long cruises under sail and the 
handiness of the auxiliary power when in con- 
tracted waters and in harbor. To it also we 
may look in time for the development of an 
American type of steam yacht specially fitted 
for long cruises. 

The average American, whether from choice 
or necessity, is so closely bound to business that 
his pleasures and his holidays must be enjoyed 
at speed, the element of leisure being a forbid- 
den luxury. To such, even of the most moder- 
ate means, there are now available many types 
of small power craft, fitted for racing, for fish- 
ing, hunting, and general pleasure running, for 
cruising under sail or for a quick trip along the 
coast or on the Lakes to fill a brief summer 
vacation. Given even a moderate amount of 
both time and money, a man may select from 
the vast and varied pleasure fleet the exact size 
and type of yacht best suited to his specific 
use. 



RECORD OF MATCHES FOR THE 
AMERICA CUP (1870 TO 1903) 



36o 



American Yachting 



I 



o 




H 




O 




^s 




oo 




H 




^"^ 


0) 






cu 


rt 


:d 


53 


u 


X 




o 


< 




u 


a 


t-H 


d 



W 

< 
w 

H 
O 

w 

KM 

u 

< 

O 

P 
OS 

o 

u 

w 



13 






a o 



PlH 



M 



I 

u 



< a 



^% 



o 

00 



^S 





o 



'<i o 



n3 
o 



00 

< 






VO l-l 00 Tf 

I « I I 

N I N N 00 



ro iJ^ t^ ■>5f VO 
N C< C^ N M 



l/^ Tf U-) 

I I I I 

O C\ »-< "H o 





o 








VO 


1 


1 
vr> 


? 


1 


W 


O 




N 

W 


1^ 
















u 


tH 


w 


l-< 


l-i 


^ 


A 


,Q 


,a 


J3 


o 


o 


u 


y 


o 


tf} 


(A 


M 


(A 


(A 



13 

7i bJO 
^ O 

c3 ,i- 



tn 
> 

7i 



,2 '-' C/3 



(U 






cJ2 K^ ^ to q c;, 



C/2 



00 



to 



X VO 
.3 Ji 



g <!^ 

00 7 

'-' s 

o ■'^ 

-a - 



U 






VO 



"ft 



4> 

o 

u 

a. 
*** 

•»* 



HO 

oi 

I 



O Xl 
V g •l-l 



.S <" 



n3 *- 



o 



c4 

Cos 



(U "^ 

P o 



jS ^ ^ 



^ .« -^ 



o -^ 









o 



00 



o 



Record of Matches for America Cup 36 1 




ON « fp NO Z iZ ^ 

« N cs f* 00 

• . • 00 hV kV 00 



C 

M 

s 






c 

o 

to 
c 

c 



6fl to ^ > > 

S3"* 00 

< < ^ ^ 



362 



American Yachting 



C; 



U 

< 

u 

W 



H 
O 

W 

u 



O 

Q 

O 
U 

w 







o 


N 


























00 










vo 00 
1-1 On 


















fO 




0\ 


vo 






mh* 


d <> 

<(/: 




t^ 


t>. 
















I 




I 




00 


Ch 




?- 


w 












7. 




A 










? 




HH 










W 
















M 












1 




1 
















fe o 






O 








V 




o 












HH 




1 
lO 


< 

K 
ft 








«^ 




1 
5 




1 
4 

M 

r'r 






M 




t-H 










C^ 




'>^ 


.J 


vO 00 
1 1 
fO 00 


vo 


I 


o 

HH 
HH 


O 

HH 


.^ 

K 






< 




1 


1 
01 


VT) 


^ 
^ 




1 


00 

1 

•o 


c 


« 






^-^ 


N 




.a 

O 




O 
1 
I/" 

*\ 
V 

B 

■*-> 

CJ 




HH 


W 








VO 

s 




c< 


c< 




4 






h5 


1 

M 


M 

1 


o 

I-I 
vi 


vo 
1 


vi 


O 

HH 
1 


s 


O 




ij 




00 


00 








00 


00 




■«-> 
o 

)-l 

o 

CJ 

c 

1 




o 




00 


00 




-r 


< 

d 




Tf 


1 


^ 


VO 

1 

00 


CO 

1 

vo 


CJ 
k-l 






ON 


o\ 




1-1 

o 
sT 


C 

o 


o 




O 


i-i 


■!-> 




CJ 




o 


o 


4-> 
1 


o 

CJ 




a 






1 




W 




PQ 




E 


> 






^ 




> 


•1 
1 


o 


•1 




M 




> 


"1 


CJ 


1 




w 




> 












Vh 


S-i 






f^ 




S-i 


j-< 




^ 


cS 
t-l 
flj 


^ 




ll 


k4 


C 


t\ 








f 




5 






13 


"3 


^ 




O 

s 






"3 




g 




o 

s 

'd 
c 






3J 
■i-t 


■kJ 
■>-> 

3 










d 
o 


o 


u 


1 






U 


CJ 


o 

a; 
C 


1 








CJ 


o 


(J 


(A 

3 










o 
















k4 




X! 


00 








rt 




ri 


00 










rJ 


00 






t« 




T3 

rt 


:3 


1-1 

o 


fO 




ri 




>H 


c 


P^ 


ro 




c 






Ph 


«r> 




C 


w 
z 




cr 

CO 

-M 

o 

n 

>> 

o 


V-i 

In 


B 

"o 
u 


ID 

!« 

>-> 

;3 
o 
o 

U 
-t-> 








1-1 

O 

13 

o 


in 

S 


tn 

u 
c 

o 


o 
o 



CJ 




■«-> 

flj 
>-< 

c 

CJ 

'TIS 

CJ 




u 

o 


OJ 

S 


i 

U 

c 

(L) 

O 


en 

o 
o 




























CJ 














n 




u 




CJ 






<4 
















>^ 








^ 






> 




■ ' 




(Tl 






>^ 






h 










^ 




O 




o 




K 


^ 




u 

-l-> 




^ 






^ 






X 










i-i 








rt 




'AJ 


>-l 




f/1 














t 


< 




(4 


1 




O 




1 




-t-j 




8 

1 


o 
> 




1 




-I-I 

c 

OJ 


:§ 


^ 

8 
8 


^ 

^ 














5 






O 

OJ 




X 


^ 


^ 






g 




E^ 




















rf 




vo 














►H 










t-^ 






HI 




VO 






•^ 




t-i 




vo 






t>. 




HH 




r^ 






w 






1 




00 














00 














50 












< 




00 






*-> 




^j 




XI 






*j 




1 ■ 




X) 






.^^ 




f. 


^ 




1^ 






C/2 














a, 

C/2 




Oh 




HH 






a, 





Record of Matches for America Cup 363 









N 


N 
















00 


N 








•d 






























0^ 


% 








^ 















»r 
















ro 


pT 








^ 














M 
















»4 


« 








c4 
























































































'O 














_^ 


























^ 


















































-< vO 


























^ 












vi 


^ 
















q 


ON 








i 




fO 








M 


** 
















N 


■^ 












r 

to 


















^ 


ro 
















N 














1 








1 

M 


vA 
















vA 


fO 








, 




"«f 








M 


« 




10 




»o 




ON 




N 


N 




?: 




vO 
1 




4? 




, 




0" 






ro 




CO 


• 






"o" 






oi 
? 

VO 




1 
VO 






VO 






cs 




1 




1 


(U 


7 






u^ 






VO 




*^ 








l^ 








10 




V4 






1 
00 


1 

00 






1 
fO 




•^3 
1) 




•^ 




00 


00 




1 




1 




1 




00 


00 














1 










'^ 

S 






3 












^" 




C 
^ 




CJ 

Ix 

V4 














^ 




fO 






N 




s 





S 












Si 









^ 




1 


Tf 
















o\ 


ro 




:2 




^ 




<-> 










M 

HN 




1^ 












N 


N 






c^ 
























1 




:S 




tS 


'53 

4J 


:S 












o\ 

? 

VO 
VO 




1 




Vi-I 




^ 


\4 


u 


r^ 




. 


.5 


d\ 




^ ^ 




VO 




4; 


bX) 


1 

r 




"3 


u 

u 

3 




e 


1 

I 


c 


? 

1 


in 


1 
1 








.fcJO 


VO 

1 

Ox 
VO 

4t 




1 
g 


ll 

13 


s 


t-l 

In 


c 


■»-> 


ll 
3 


3 


-D 


aT 




u 












T3 






u 





-d 


•> 




'■^ 


13 


rt 


c 


a 


ll 


u 

c 


c 



c4 

3 

cr 




> 

C 


in 

P-H 


T3 

C 

c 

Vi 

3 

"5 


.S 

u 

<u 
ll 





>-■ 



S 


J 

OJ 



1-1 





c 

V-i 

3 

>-l 

13 


13 
u 



lU 
Vi 







ll 

cJ 

3 

cr 

C/3 
•t-* 


C 
I) 
> 
cS 
1-1 

c 

3 


1! 

S-i 


c 

3 
T3 


1) 

13 
<u 



OJ 

t-l 

V, 





1-1 

0) 
13 


£ 




u 

ll 


c 

l-l 

3 

l-l 

t3 


l-l 

13 


c 

c4 






Q 


> 




■vT 




•vT 
8 


c4 


vT 

8 




^-4 


Q 




C 




13 




cS 








13 


-0 





(4 


^ 


■^ 


^ 




^ 


-^3 





-d 




^ 


:|^ 


13 


4^ 












cJ 


n3 








C3 


•§3 








U 


C 






:2 


13 
B 




'I 




43 



^ 






c 




■^ 




J3 


^ 




'i 




'Hi) 




'i 


















.2 










■<-> 









rt 









^-l 










•M 




'ij 








ci 






+-> 




'C 




•<-l 




S 






8 


U5 




4-> 

4» 








S 










♦J 
•2i 




(A 








































1 






1- 

:2 


1 




1 




1 






4- 




10 




6 




1 

VO 










































H 




ro 




ro 














fO 




vn 






i-^ 








^^ 




•^ 




^ 






t^ 




o\ 




M 




OS 
00 






*i 




■t^ 




^ 




P* 




M 






^-f 




4-» 




4J 




M 






Oi 




a. 




a. 




4> 










CJ 




U 




u 










V 




u 




4J 




W 































C/2 




Ol 




(X! 








bo 

3 



3 
O 

bo 

c 

'bb 

c 

c4 



3^4 



American Yachting 






o 
u 

< 
u 

I— I 

Pi 

w 



H 

o 

W 

u 

< 

O 
Q 
O 



•< 






































kH 






N 


LO 








8 








t^ 


1^ 










^^ 






On 


CO 














N 


M 














««*; 


M4 








1 











N 










5^ 
























4 












OJ 
















1 






















£g 














-? 














.§ 




















H 
fa 


^§ 














'J 


































PS 








CO 

1 


1 




Q- 




CJ 




fO 






1 




^ 




d 








o 


o\ 




O 




V4 




f 







2" 




1 




7 








M 


HH 




1 






I 




cs 






i-i 




VO 
















8 




o 




1^ 










? 




N^ 


S 












1 


H 












T 








is 










Tt- 




«r> 


< 






VO 


'^ 




S*" 








CO 




rj- 


rf 




!5" 




t5 


PQ 






N 


w 




-^ 
?> 




s 
^ 








N 


C< 




1 
















' 




S 






hi 




On 


00 

1 

On 




<3 




^ 




K 

^ 
Q 




CO 00 




V 

S 
Q 




k 

^ 
Q 




►J 




00 


00 




p«i 








r^ 




00 


00 




►*t 




"^ 












^ 




a; 




03 










to 




^ 
















14 


















)-■ 




















>-l 




< 










Q 




J3 




s^ 










t}- 




VO 






6 




00 


M 




9 






5 




t^ 


14 




N 




fO 








M 


fO 




1 




• rH 




T 




ro 


ro 




i 




1 










H-l 


M 




o 




^ 




06 




►^ 


t-4 






t!) 
























? 










? 


















Y 




nd 














1 














o 




S3 




CO 










rt 




fO 


M 






, 


, 




^ 




eS 




^ 




. 


. 








«v 








W W 




(U 












W M 








4> 












1 


CJ 

V 




s 

p. 

o 


a 
o 


-I-I 

T3 


lU 
1.1 









1 


flj 

•4-1 
CJ 

1) 

1m 




■4-> 




(5 




V4 


l-l 

I) 


V4 

v 

•>-> 
-•-> 

s 


V-i 

■l-» 


OJ 

t5 






^ 


o 


o 


-d 
s 


1-1 

o 
u 




o 

t— 1 

S 











CJ 


ns 




u 



















u 






3 




CI 

o 




g 




a3 




g 




rCj 








c 


•S 

►S 




•0 






4-> 


r-l 




s 

» 


i-, 




g 

8 


ClJ 


iH 




S 
» 




J5 


o 






■;3 

in 

s 

O 


J— 1 

w 
I— 1 
It 


;3 
■(-■ 


•^ 

e 


■4-1 

a 


Q 

^ 


"oj 
«-< 


§ 


to 


*h3 


c 

cS 
u 




■4-1 

Ix 


s 










o 


> 






CJ 

o 




g 







s 


13 




S 








H 
t-l 

c?5 




■^3 

1 











Pi 




Q 
W 


CU 




g 














n3 

a 




"to 




13 




15 


!^ 




«j 

1-^ 


















o 


s 




o 




•2 




o 




:^ 


s 









.3 




u 

<; 




15 


•^ 

? 




(A 

0) 




•4-1 




■4-> 
Ui 
OJ 




rCl 

> 

1) 






4-> 
M 




'i-i 






J 
^ 




g 
^ 


1 




1 

r 




1 




g 
^ 


1 




1 

6 












e 


u^ 




O 




to 




w 




cS 








u 




On 






VO 




r^ 




O 










00 








h 




0^ 






i-i 




H4 




cs 















ro 




< 




00 






, 








, 




0^ 






■M 




. 




Q 










4-> 
O 




CJ 




CJ 




»-« 










•4-> 

CJ 
















o 




o 




c 










C^ 










Record of Matches for America Cup 365 









Tj- 


Cs 




















vn 


u-> 




















kM 


MM 










































^ 























^^ 


** 
































JS 






















Ui 






















"S 






00 






vO 









fO 


tc 






1 




^ 


1 
On 




1 
On 








c 






PO 










1 




1 


rs 














"* 










ro 




fo 


"3 






s 






00 
1 




•^N 




•< 


^ 












1/^ 




^ 




^ 


^ 




























"0" 

1 
ON 


00 

1 
On 






?^ 




00 


00 




« 




^ 


N» 






^ 










^ 




J^ 


.^ 






















. 




Tj- 00 
















f^ 




1 


1 










bl 






u^ 




4f 


r^ 




r>. 




"<^ 


c 9 






1 




fo 


^ 




1 




1 




ej 












1 




1 


- 00 
>-' 1 




*-> 












J 




^ ^ 




oT 




V 






g 










J 




S 


fi s 






















'^ 






•:3 










-0 




-c 


to -d 







w 


w 









3 







oJ 


1) 

bl 
bl 






■t-t 

CJ 

a; 

bl 
u 



«2 « 

ei bl 

<u 




TJ 








a 
6 


1 


u 

u 

CI] 



a, 


a 


bi 

'^ 


a 




■—> 
a 

bl 


CJ 






3 


to 


bi 

4J 


M 


I/> 


C 


'^ 





^ 


.s ^ 








1/3 


C5 

B 




'$ 




a 




^ 




c4 




5 








13 
>-• 




a 




"d 




TJ 







trf 




ci 






e<S 




1 




Pi 




}n 


U 


T3 

C 




"So 

c 








^ 






2 











■b> 













m 






Vj 


>> 


t/3 








(A 




V 




.£3 


? 


Vj 


a> 




u 




a 








,j-> 


i^ 


« 


















u^ 




















1) 




'6 




1 

6 




'B 




M 




H 


^ 


<; 






ro 




'"' 














N 




vO 








-* 











N 




N 




PO 




i 










3 




3 




■bl 

a, 

















< 




< 




CA! 





4; 
u 

■-3 

to 

c 



c 

o 

c 
■& 

c« 

c 



INDEX 



Ackers, George, 60, 61. 

Ackers' Scale, 65. 

Adams, Charles Francis, 3d, 202, 

203, 207-208, 233. 
Adanis, George C, 202, 203, 207- 

208, 233. 
Adda, 28, 30. 
Aiisa, 306. 
Alarm, British cutter, 61, 62, 64, 

65, 69. 
Alartn, schooner, 89. 
Albertson Brothers, builders, 74, 79, 

88. 
Aluminum, first used in canoes, 326. 
Use of, in Defender, 239. 
Use of, abandoned in Cup de- 
fenders, 307. 
America, merchant ship and priva- 
teer, 4. 
America, schooner, contract for, 43. 
Design of, 40, 45-49. 
History of, subsequent to win- 
ning Royal Yacht Squad- 
ron Cup, 66, 69-71. 
Interior arrangement of, 50. 
Laverock's race with, 53, 58-59. 
Lines of, 40. 
Masts of, 50-51. 
Queen Victoria visits, 65-66. 
Race for America Cup in 1870, 

no. 
Race for Royal Yacht Squadron 

Cup, 59-65. 
Race with Titania, 66. 
Rig of, 57, 63. 
Sails of, 51, 62-63. 
Syndicate which built, 42-43. 



America, steam yacht, 342. 
America Cup, America wins (Royal 

Yacht Squadron Cup) , 60- 

65. 
Arrival of, in New York, 67-68, 

105-106. 
Custody of, given to New York 

Yacht Club, 106-107. 
Defended by — 

Columbia, schooner, 1 1 2- 1 1 3. 
Columbia, cutter, 309-315. 
Defender, 240-244. 
Fleet of seventeen American 

yachts, iio-iii. 
Four American schooners, 

112-114. 
Madeline, 1 1 6-1 1 7. 
Mayflower, 185. 
Mischief, 1 1 8-1 19. 
Puritan, 180-182. 
Reliance, 3 1 8-3 1 9. 
Vigilant, 234-236. 
Volunteer, 194. 
Raced for by — 

Atalanta, 117-I19, 137. 
Cambria, 97, 110-114. 
Countess of Duffer in, I15- 

117. 
Galatea, 182, 1 84- 1 85. 
Genesta, 1 65- 1 66, 180-182. 
Livonia, 99, 1 1 2- 1 1 4. 
Shamrock L, 309-310. 
Shamrock LI, 312-315. 
Shamrock I LI, 3 1 8-3 1 9. 
Thistle, 188-194. 
Valkyrie LI, 234-236. 
Valkyrie III, 240-244. 



367 



368 



Index 



America Cup \^coniinued'\ — 

Table showing matches for, 360- 

365. 
Amy, steam yacht, 346. 
Anaconda, 200, 202. 
Ann Maria, 31, 32. 
Arrow, British cutter, 61, 62, 64, 65. 
Arrow, American centre-board sloop, 

136, 137- 
Ashbury, James, 60, 95-96, 98, 99, 
299. 
Challenges for America Cup, 109- 

Aspinwall, William H., 340, 342. 

Astrild, 284. 

Atalanta, races of, for America Cup, 

1 1 7-1 19, 137. 
Athlon, 200, 202. 
Atlantic, 182-183, 201. 
Atlantic Yacht Club, 159, 183. 
Aurora, 61, 64, 65. 
Auxiliary yachts, 356-358. 
Awa, 203. 

Babboon, 203, 212. 

Bacchante, 61, 64, 65. 

Banshee, 202-203, 212. 

Barr, Captain Charles, 199, 204, 207, 

224, 231, 239, 308, 310, 

316. 
Barr, Captain John, 194, 199-200, 

233- 
Barr, John, Jr., 204, 

Bay of Quinte Yacht Club, 117. 

Challenge for America Cup from, 

137- 
Beatrice, 61, 64. 

Becket, Retire, 4-5. 

Bedouin, 156, 159, 167, 179, 201, 

285. 
Beetle, 174. 
Belle, 28. 

Belmont, August, 206, 228, 296, 313. 
Belmont, Oliver H. P., 228. 



Bennett, James Gordon, Jr., 82, 90, 

93, 97, 100, 167-168. 
Bennett-Douglas cups, 200. 
Bird, John H., 188. 
Blatch, W. L., 147, 148. 
Boston as a yachting centre, 161- 

162. 
Boston Yacht Club (of 1835), 27. 
Bourne, Frederick G., 313. 
Bradford, Captain "Dan," 184-185. 
Brand, J. Arthur, 255-256. 
Brenda, 31, 35. 
Brenton's Reef Cup, 98. 
Brilliant, 61, 65. 
Britannia, 64, 299. 

Race against Navahoe, 224. 
Race against Vigilant, 64, 237. 
Bronze, use of, in yacht construc- 
tion, 297, 306, 307. 
Brooklyn Yacht Club, 38, 81. 
Brooks, John E., 228. 
Brown & Bell, builders, 35. 
Brown, Captain "Dick," 51, 98. 
Brown, Edward M., 245, 246. 
Brown, William H., builder, 42. 
Brunei, Isambard, 9. 
" Bubfish " boats, 75. 
Burgess, Benjamin F., 170. 
Burgess, Edward, 186, 212, 226, 281. 
Career of, 169-172. 
Death of, 223. 
Designing by, of — 
Babboon, 203. 
Gossoon, 208. 
Mayflower, 182. 
Nymph, 203. 
Papoose, 202. 
Puritan, 169, 175-178. 
Titania, 215. 
Forty-footers by, 209. 
Ninety-footers by, 201. 
Smaller boats by, 254. 
Burgess, Sidney W., 1 70-1 71, 172. 
Burgess, Walter S., 171, 273. 



Index 



369 



Busk, Joseph R., 135, 168. 
Buttercup, 214. 
"Buttercup bow," the, 214. 
Byrne, St. Clare J., 346. 

Calluna, 306. 

Navahoe races against, 224. 
Vigilant races against, 237. 
Cambria, 94, 95-96. 

Ocean race against Dauntless, 97, 

no. 
Races for America Cup, 97, iio- 
114. 
Camilla, America renamed, 70. 
Canada, Cup challengers from, 115- 
118. 
End made of challenges from, 

122-123. 
Half-raters in, 259-265. 
Seawanhaka Trophy goes to, 
260. 
Canfield, A. Cass, 184. 
Canoeing, 252, 326. 

Outgrowth of small yachts from, 

254-255- 
Cape Cod cat-boats, 252, 332-334. 

Capes, William, builder, 15, 23. 

Carey, Henry Astor, 229. 

Carll, David, builder, 79, 88. 

Carll, Jesse, builder, 79. 

Carroll, Royal Phelps, 206, 224. 

Carter, Captain John, 166, i8i, 237. 

Castle Point, Stevens home at, 8-9. 

Catamarans, ii, 217, 264. 

Cat-boats, 250-252, 324, 332-334- 

" Bob " Fish's, 74-75. 

New York, 251. 
Celt, steam yacht, 349. 
Center, Robert, 93, 127, 128, 130- 

131. 

Sketch of, 138-139. 
Centre-board, keel vs., in America, 
73. 79-81, loo-ioi, 142, 
153- 

2B 



Centre-board sloop, Puritan marks 

end of the, 186. 
Challenger, half-rater, 263. 
Chapin, Chester W., 228-229. 
Chester W. Chapin, the, 140. 
Chiquita, 203. 
Chispa, 203. 
Chocta'iu, 203. 
Cinderella, compromise cutter, 200, 

202. 
City of Lowell, 140. 
Civil War, yachting after the, 87. 
Clara, 194, 1 98-201. 
Clarita, 341. 
Qark, George C, 229. 
Clark, J. George, 199. 
Qasses, division of yachts into, 135- 

136. 
Cleopatra^ s Barge, 4-8. 
" Clipper stem," the, 214. 
Club-houses, New York Yacht Qub, 

36-37- 
Qyde, steam yachts built on the, 

346-348. 
Coats, James, 145-147. 
"Cod's head and mackerel's tail" 

model, 18. 
Coffin, Captain, ne%vspaper reporter, 

157- 
Colonia, 228, 230-23 1. 
Columbia, schooner, 100. 

Defence of America Cup by, 

112-113. 
Columbia., sloop, description, 307- 

308. 
Races in defence of America 

Cup, 309-310, 314-315- 
Columbia Yacht Qub, 81. 
Columbine, 172. 
Comet, 100. 
" Composite " construction in yachts, 

199, 287-288, 296. 
Compromise cutter, 143, 155, 168. 
Puritan a type of, 176. 



370 



Index 



Compromise sloop, 135, 143, 168, 

169, 200. 
Comstock, Nelson, 51. 
Condor, 94. 

Conqueror, steam yacht, 347-348. 
Constance, British schooner, 61, 64. 
Constance, half-rater, 265. 
Constitution, 3 1 y-T, 1 4. 
Consuelo, 217. 
Continental Iron Works, builders, 

342. 
Coquette, 31, 35. 
Corinthian regatta, first, 32. 

Second, 34. 
Cornelia, 15, 39. 
Corsair, forty-rater, 243. 
Countess of Dufferin, 1 1 5-1 1 7. 
Crane, Clinton H., 259, 262, 265. 
Cranfield, Captain William, 234, 243. 
Crocker, Captain Aubrey, 182. 
Crowninshield, Benjamin, 4. 
Crowninshield, B. B., 278. 
Crowninshield, Captain George, 2-7. 
Crowninshield family, the, 2-3. 
Cup defenders, characteristics of 

later, 304-305. 
Cup races. See America Cup. 
Cushing, John P., 12. 
Cuthbert, Alexander, 115-116, 117. 
"Cutter cranks," 133, 153, 154, 155. 
Cutters, first American, 129-130. 
Cygnet, cutter (British), 16. 
Cygnet, schooner (American), 15, 

16, 28, 30, 3i» Z'^^ ZZ^ 34. 

Daphne, 200, 202. 

Dart, 31, 32. 

Dauntless, 88, 97. 

Dawson, Dr. B. F., 143. 

Day Dream, steam yacht, 342. 

Decie, H. E., 70. 

" Deed of Gift," the, 106-109. 

Second, 1 19-123. 

Third ("New"), 195-197. 



Defender, 238, 307. 

Defence of America Cup by, 240- 

244. 
Description of, 239. 
Trial boat for Columbia, 306, 308. 
Denny & Brother, builders, 311. 
Depau, Louis A., 28, 73, 82. 
Dilemma, 221-223, 282. 
Diver, ii. 
Dominion, typical " freak," 263- 

265, 276. 
Dory, the Yankee, lower limit of 

one-design class, 297. 
Double Trouble, II. 
Douglas, William P., 75, 94-95, '^^^ 
Dreadnought, 100. 
Dream., 12, 28. 
Duggan, G. Herrick, 259, 265. 

Characteristics of boats designed 
by, 275-276. 
Duncan, Captain James, 54-55, 147, 

153, 162-163. 
Duncan, W. Butler, Jr., 294, 306, 

314. 
Dunraven, Earl of, 115, 300. 
Career of, 225. 
Challenges for America Cup, 226- 

227, 237. 
Charges against Defender, 240- 

241, 244-245. 
Expulsion from New York Yacht 

Club, 245. 
Duryea, H. B., 296. 

Eagle, figure of, on America, 49. 
Eagre, the Mohawk becomes the, 

103. 
Eclipse, 61, 65. 
Edgar, William, 28, 29, 36. 
Eelin, 284. 
El Heirie, 259, 262. 
Ellsworth, Captain " Joe," 77. 
Ellsworth, Captain Philip, 77, 159, 

182. 



Index 



371 



Ellsworth family, the, 77-78. 
Elm inn, I So. 
Emmett, Robert, 27. 
England, America's visit to, 53-66. 
Effect of America's visit in, 71- 

72. 
Effect of defeat of Genesia and 

Galatea in, 187. 
Introduction of canoeing from, 

252-254. 
Navahoe visits, 224. 
Sihie visits, 82. 
Small boats in, 254-255. 
Steam yachts imported from, 

346-347- 
Vigilant' s visit to, 64, 237-238. 
Enterprise, 162. 
Erin, 309, 311. 
Ethelwynn, 253, 255, 257, 258, 267, 

268, 323. 
Eva, schooner, 88. 
Explosion motors, 355. 

F. ^^ R., half-rater, 256. 

Fanita, 136, 1 61. 

Fanny, 136, 159, 161, 164, 167, 20I. 

Favorite, 82, S3. 

Fay & Son, builders, 225. 

Fearing, H. S., 91. 

Fernande, 61, 64. 

"Fiddle bow," the, 214. 

Fife, William, Jr., 199, 201, 204, 207. 

Shamrock I zoTin^cWoWy 305-306, 
309-311. 

Shamrock III designed by, 316. 
Fifteen-footer. See Half-rater. 
Fin keel, advent of the, 222-223. 

Exploitation of, in small classes 
of boats, 254. 
Finley, J. Beekman, 43. 
Firefly, \V. H. Aspinwall's, 340-341, 

342. 
Firefly, Jacob Lorillard's, 342. 
Fish, Captain " Bob," 74, 88, 94-95. 



Fish, Isaac, 74. 
Fish, Latham A., 159. 
Flatties, 272. 
Fleetwing, 85, 87, IIO. 

Ocean race of, 89-93. 
Fleiir de Lis, 87. 
Flint, Charles R., 228. 
Flint, F. W., 203. 
Florinda, 177. 

Forbes, J. Malcolm, 169, 172, 173. 
Forbes, R. B., 12, 28. 
Forbes, W. H., 172, 173. 
Force, William, 342. 
For tuna, 159, 174, 212, 285. 
France, scow type of yacht in, 277. 
Freak, British cutter, 61, 64. 
Freak types, development of, in half- 
raters, 263. 
Fritsch, Hugo, 342. 
Fulton, E. M., Jr., 229. 

Galatea, 179, 182, 184, 214, 219. 
Description of, 165-166. 
Mayflower defeats, off Marble- 
head, 186. 
Races for the America Cup, 182, 
184-185. 
Gardner, John L., 172. 
Gardner, William, 203, 205, 297, 

348. 
Garner, Commodore William T., 37, 

101-103. 
Gar)', Elbert H., 316. 
Gas engines, 355. 
Gasoline motors, 355. 
Genesta, 191, 214, 219, 323. 
Arrival at New York, 179. 
Description of, 165-166. 
Races for America Cup, 165-166, 
180-182. 
George and Annie, I47. 
Gertrude, 75. 

Gertrude, Lieutenant Henn's yawl, 
184. 



372 



Index 



Gielow, H. J., steam-yacht designing 

by, 348. 
Gifford Major Charles, 115-116. 
Gimcrack, 15-17, 27, 30, 3i.34,35'4i- 
Gipsy Queen, 61, 64. 
Gitana, 174. 
Glencairn /, 258, 259-260, 262, 

263, 268. 
Glencairn II, 262-263. 
Glencairn III, 265. 
Gloriana, 71, 221, 222, 223, 224, 

267, 269, 282, 287. 
Design of, 217-219. 
" Gloriana bow," the, 218. 
Gorilla, 203, 206. 
Gossoon, 208, 287. 
Gould, George J., 237, 239. 
Gould, Howard, 237. 
Grade, 136, 137, 154, 155, 164, 167, 

179, 201. 
Gray, William, Jr., 1 72, 1 74. 
Grayling, 159-160, 183, 201. 
Griscom, Clement A., 316. 
Gypsy, 83. 

Haff, Captain " Hank," 194, 228, 

230, 237, 239. 
Hagstaff, 41. 
Halcyon, 88, 98, 173. 

Prototype for Puritan, 177. 
Half-raters, defined, 256. 

Races of, 258-265. 
Hamilton, James A., 42, 52. 
Hansen, Captain "William, 231. 
Harris, J. J. , modeller and builder, 88. 
Harvey, John, 134, 144, 156, 285, 
Haswell, 81. 

Hathorne and Steers, builders, 42. 
Hauoli I, 349. 
Hauoli II, 349. 
Havemeyer, Theodore A., 342. 
Havre, Americans arrival at, 51-52. 
Haze, 82, 83. 
Helen and Alice, 203. 



Hemenway, Augustus, 172, 174,203. 

Hendersons, builders, 190. 

Henn, Lieutenant William* 1 84-186, 

246, 321. 
Henrietta, 85, 89, 97. 

Ocean race of, 90-93. 
Herreshoff, John B., 79, 171, 215- 

216. 
Herreshoff, Nathaniel G., 215-217. 
Dilemma designed by, 221-223. 
Gloriana designed by, 217-221. 
Vigilant steered by, in Cup race, 

236-237. 
Work of, in Cup defenders, 302- 
303, 320-321. 
Herreshoff Manufacturing Company, 
79, 216-217. 
Catamarans designed by, 217, 

264. 
Design and construction by, of — 
Colonia, 228-230. 
Columbia, 306-308. 
Constitution, 313. 
Defender, 238-239. 
Navahoe, 224. 
Reliance, 3 16-3 1 7. 
Shadow, 151. 
Vigilant, 229. 
Wasp, 224. 
Half- raters built by, 257. 
Knockabouts (" raceabouts ") , 

293- 
" One-design " class of boats, 

295-298. 
Sails made by, 302-304. 
Seventy-foot class, 297. 
Steam vessel construction by, 

343-344. 
Torpedo-boats built by, 217, 343. 
Hesper, 173. 
Hewett, Robert, 214. 
Higginson, Francis L., 172. 
Hiker, the, 251. 
Hildegarde, 136, 137, 155, 159. 



Index 



373 



Hill, G. H. B., 132. 

Hill, James J., 316. 

Hoboken Model Yacht Gub, 27. 

Hoffman, Ogden, 27. 

Hogarth, Captain "Archie," 308- 

309- 
Hollow spars, on Alariay 24. 

Modern, 2S6. 
Hope, Linton, 257. 
Hopkins, \V. Barton, 229. 
Hornet, 31, 3-2. 

Hovey, Henry S., 159, 172, 174. 
Howard, William \Villard, 255. 
Hoyt, Colgate, 205. 
Hudson River sloops, 19, 22. 
Huntington, L. D., Jr., 260. 
Huron, 174, 20 1. 
Hyslop, John, 127, 130. 

Length-and-sail-area rule of, 
280-281. 

Sketch of career of, 140-141. 

Wave form theory of, 141, 213. 

Ideal, steam yacht, 342. 

Idler, 88, 98, 1 10. 

Immadium, use of, in Shamrock II, 

312. 
Independence, 277-279, 314. 
Internal-combustion motors, 355. 
Intrepid, schooner, 132. 
Intrepid, sloop, 212, 285. 
lone, 61. 
Irex, 165. 
Iron, use of, in yacht construction, 

284, 344. 
Iroquois, 201, 212. 
Iselin, C. Oliver, 228, 231, 232, 239, 

243, 306, 316. 
Conduct of, under Dunraven's 

accusations, 245-246. 
Inspiration of personaHty of, 322. 
Isis, 200. 

Italy, scow t\'pe of yacht in, 277. 
Itchen Length Class boats, 202. 



Jane, knockabout, 289-291. 
Jay, John C, 28, 29. 
Jefferson, 3-4. 
Jerome, Leonard W., 341. 
Jersey City Yacht Club, 38, 81. 
Jib-and-mainsail boats, 251-252. 
Josephine, 88. 
Jubilee, 228, 232. 

Description of, 233. 
Julia^ 21-22, 73, 80, 89. 
Juniata, 88. 

Kamehameha I, King, owner of Cleo- 
patra's Barge, 7. 

Kanawha II, steam yacht, 349. 

Katrina, 204, 215, 226. 

Keel, question of, vs. centre-board, 
73, 79-81, loo-ioi, 142, 

153. 
Kirby, David, builder, 79, 117, 137. 
Kismet, steam yacht, 349. 
Knickerbocker Boat Club, 26. 
Knockabout Association, formation 

of, 292. 
Knockabouts, 289-294, 296, 334. 
Advent of, 289-292. 
Over-development into race- 
abouts, 293. 
Kunhardt, C. P., 158, 160. 

la Coquille, 15, 28, 30, 31, 32, 35. 
Lake St. Louis, Seawanhaka Cup 

races on, 262-263, 265. 
Layicet, 30, 31, 32. 
Lapthorne & Ratsey, sail-makers, 

156-157. 303-304- 
lapwing, 173. 
Larchmont Yacht Club, 294. 
Launches, steam, 353-356. 
Laverock, race by, against America, 

53. 58-59. 
Lawlor, D. J., builder, 79, 162, 174. 
Lawley & Son, builders, 79, 178, 

182, 228. 



374 



Index 



Lawrence & Foulks, builders, 341. 
Lawson, Thomas W., 278-279, 314. 
Lee, C. Smith, 127, 144, 195. 
Leeds, William B., 316. 
Length-and-sail-area rule, Hyslop's, 

280-281. 
V Hirondellcy 88. See Dauntless. 
V Indienne, 256. 
Lipton, Sir Thomas, 300-301, 309, 

311. 

First Cup challenge from, 305. 

Second challenge from, 312. 

Third challenge from, 316. 
Liris, 203, 205, 206, 207, 208, 286. 
Livingston, C. L., 9, 27. 
Livonia^ cut of, 100. 

Model of, III. 

Race for America Cup, II2-114. 
Lonsdale, Lord, 238. 
Loper, R. F., 74, 88, 341. 
Lorillard, Jacob, 342. 
Lorillard, Pierre, Jr., 88, 90. 
Lotowana, 203. 
Lovejoy, J. F., 206. 
Lysistrata, steam yacht, 348. 

McCalmont, Captain H. Le B., 
238. 

McGiehan, " Pat," builder, 78. 

McKay, Captain, newspaper re- 
porter, 157. 

McManus & Son, sail-makers, 178. 

McVey, A. G., 203. 

Madcap, 136. 

Madeline, 88-89, 9^f 99> 1 1^117. 

Madge, Scotch cutter, 54-55, 80, 
142, 144-154- 

Madgie, 82, 98. 

Maggie, 156, 159. 

Magic, 98, 105, no. 

Mahan, Captain Alfred T., 245. 

Mallory, D. D., builder, 74, 79. 

Marett, Philip R., " Yacht Building " 
by, 127. 



Maria, 20, 22, 32-33, 41, 89. 

Description of, 23-24. 

Races against America, 44. 
Mariquita, 203. 
Marjorie, 163. 
Martin Van Bur en, 15. 
Mary Taylor, 18-19, 20, 41, 62, 67. 
Mather, Samuel, 205, 
MayJio2uer, sloop, 6, 193, 20I, 214, 
286. 

Description of, 182. 

Galatea beaten by, off Marble- 
head, 186. 
Mayflower, steam yacht, 348. 
Means, James, 203. 
Memphis, later name for America^ 70. 
Merlin, 201. 
Meteor II, 299, 310. 
Miller, Captain "Lem," 310, 316. 
Mineola II, 296. 
Minerva, 206-208, 287. 

Resemblance of Shamrock II to, 
316, 319. 
Minna, 28, 30, 31. 
Minnie, 82, Zt^. 
Miranda, 201. 
Mischief, 142-143, 155, 159, 164, 

201, 214, 221, 284. 

Defence of America Cup by, Ii8- 

119, 137-138. 
Description of, 135. 
Mist, 28, 31. 
Mistral, 148, 149, 153. 
Moccasin, 208, 287. 
Modelling, effect of America's visit 

on English, 71-72. 
Mohawk, capsizing of, 80, 101-103, 

126, 131, 158. 
Memo, 262-263. 
Mona, 61. 

Montant, Jules A., 168, 180. 
Montauk, 201. 
Morgan, E. D., 206, 217, 228, 239, 

314, 316. 



Index 



375 



Morgan, J. Pierpont, 228, 245, 306. 
Moses //. Grintiell, 21, 41. 
Mosquito, 20, 62, 67, 212, 284. 
Moya, 172. 

Mumm, John F., builder, 131, 182. 
Muriely 1 34, 142. 

Nahma, steam yacht, 348. 
Nancy, knockabout, 289-291. 
Naphtha engines, introduction of, 

353-354- 
Navahoe, 224. 
Neola, 297. 
Nrwburgh, 30, 31, 75. 
New Deed of Gift, the, 54, 195-197. 
New Orleans, Southern Yacht Club 

of, 37- 
New York, origin of yachting in, 8. 

New York Boat Club, 26-27. 
New York Canoe Club, 252, 255. 
New York cat-boats, 251. 
New York Yacht Club, America Cup 
given into custody of, 106- 
107. 
City quarters of, 36-37. 
Qub-house at Staten Island, 36. 
Dunraven expelled from, 245. 
First club-house, 29. 
Organization of, 17, 27-28. 
Regattas, 82-84. 
Niagara, United States frigate, 17, 

22. 
Nimbus, built by J. B. Herreshoff 
for Edward Burgess, 171. 
North Carolina Yacht Club, 37-38. 
Northern Light, 28, 31. 
North River sloops, 19, 22. 
North Star, Commodore Vander- 

bilt's, 340. 
Nymph, 203, 212. 

Ocean Gem, 342. 

Ocean race, Cambria against Daunt- 
lessy 97, no. 



Ocean race \^continued'\ — 

FUetwing, Henrietta, and Vesta, 

89-93- 
Oelrichs, Hermann, 137. 
Oimara, 94, 284. 
Olita, 256, 257. 
One-design class, 294-298. 

Scope for amateur talent in, 331. 
One-gun start, the, 236-237. 
Onkahie, 12. 
Oriva, 144, 159. 
Osgood, Franklin, 90. 
Ottawa, gunboat, 71. 
Osgood, George, 90. 
Outlook, 273-274, 276. 

Padelford, E. M., 206. 

Paine, General Charles J., 169, 185. 
Mayflower built by, 182. 
Personality of, a feature in suc- 
cess of boats, 321-322. 
Sketch of career of, 172-173. 
Testimonial from New York 

Yacht Club, 194. 
Volunteer built by, 192. 

Paine, John B., 228. 

Palmer, Robert, builder, 79, 88, 98, 
99. 

Paloma, 150. 

Papoose, 202, 203, 212, 214. 

Parker, Captain Ben, 310. 

Parker, Herman, 290. 

Payne, Oliver H., 313. 

Payne Bill, the, 348. 

Peabody, Francis E., 162. 

Pear sail, 31, 32. 

Pearsall, P. S., 202. 

Penny Bridge boats, 76, 78. 

Periaguas, ii, 13, 250. 

Pet, 31. 

Petrel, 1 30, I40, 142. 

Petro7iilla, 225. 

Phantom, 88. 

Phelps, Edward J., 245. 



376 



Index 



Phoenix, Lloyd, 132. 

Piepgrass, Henry, builder, 134, 144, 

156. 
Pilgrim, 228, 233. 
Pilot-boats, New York, 17-18. 
Pocahontas, 137, 155. 
Poillon Brothers, builders, ^^, 93. 
Pook, Samuel, ^^. 
Press, nautical, reporters for the, 

157-158- 
Priscilla, 168, 198, 201, 214, 323. 
Races against Puritan, 178-179. 
Races against Mayflower, 184. 
Prospero, 132. 

Puritan, 170, 193, 198, 201, 212, 
214, 286, 323, 356. 
Defends America Cup against 

Genesta, 180-182. 
Description, 1 76-1 77. 

Rig, 177-178- 
Sails, 178. 
Pusey & Jones Co., builders, 193. 

Queen Mab, 243, 284. 

Queen's Cup race, 66. 

Question, 256, 260-261, 265, 272. 

Quin, Wyndham Thomas Wyndham. 

See Dun raven. Earl of. 
Quincy Yacht Club cup, 273. 

Raceabouts, 293-294. 
Races, early New York, 24. 

International. 6"^^ America Cup. 
Ocean, 89-93, 97> ^lo- 
Trial, in connection with Cup 
contests, 137, 179, 184, 
23 1 » 239, 308, 318. 
Rainbow, 296. 
Rambler, 91. 
Ratsey, Michael, modeller and 

builder, 63. 
Ray, sloop, 21. 
Ream, Norman B., 316. 
Reaney & Neafie, builders, 341. 



Reaney, Sons & Archbold, builders 

129. 
Rebecca, 73, 82, 83. 
Regattas, early New York Yacht 
Club's, 29-34. 
Eastern Yacht Club's, 186. 
First Corinthian, 32-33. 
New York Yacht Club's (1870), 
97-100. 
Regina, 136, 159. 
Reliance, 304-305. 

Defence of America Cup by, 

318-319. 

Description of, 317. 

Syndicate for building, 316. 
Reporters, yachting, 157-158. 
Resolute, 1 00. 
Restless, ^t^. 
Restricted classes, 294-298. 

Scope for amateur talent in, 331. 
Rhodes, Captain Urias, 308, 314, 316. 
Richard Peck, 140. 
Richardson, A., 225. 
Richmond, D. O., builder, 79. 
Ricker, R. E., 343. 
Rives, George L., 245. 
Rockefeller, William, 316. 
Rogers, Archibald, 156, 224, 228, 230. 
Rogers, James, 28. 
Rollins, George B., 28, 29. 
Rondina, 172. 
Roosevelt, Nicholas J., 9. 
Rose of Devon, 177. 
Royal Clyde Yacht Club, challenge 
for America Cup from, 
188-190. 

Second challenge announced but 
withdrawn, 194-196. 
Royal Nova Scotia Yacht Club, 123. 
Royal St. Lawrence Yacht Club, 330. 

Seawanhaka Trophy won by, 258- 
260. 
Royal Ulster Yacht Club, challenge 
for America Cup from, 305. 



Index 



in 



Royal Yacht Squadron Cup, 59-68. 

See America Cup. 
Royal Yacht Squadron Cup race, 

significance of, 66-67. 
Russell, John Scott, 19-20, 72, 212. 
Wave form theory of, 62, 141. 

Sachem, 201. 

Sails, Herreshoff's vs. Lapthorne & 

Ratsey's, 303. 
Salem, early shipping from, 2-3. 
Sand-bag sailing, 251, 327. 
Disappearance of, 254. 
Sappho, 88, 93-97. 

Defence of America Cup by, 113- 

114. 
Satania, 224, 237. 
Satanita, 237. 

Schemer, 148, 149, 1 50, 153. 
Schermerhorn, F. Augustus, 228. 
Schooners, effect of Mohawk disaster 

on, 103. 
Ocean race of, 89-93, 97> i^O- 
Schuyler, George L., 28, 42, 119- 

121, 195. 
Schuyler, M. Roosevelt, 134. 
Schuyler, Philip, 168. 
Scow class, development of the, 263- 

266. 
Independence a member of, 277- 

279. 
Resemblance of Reliance to, 

317. 
Theory of design of, 268-273. 

Types of, 273-275. 
Seabury, C. L., steam-yacht designing 

by, 348. 
Sears, David, 29. 
Sears, J. Montgomery, 172, 174. 
Seawanhaka Trophy for small yachts, 
249, 256. 
Canadians carry off, 260. 
Later races for, 262-263, 265- 
266. 



Seawanhaka Yacht Club, formation 
of, 126-127. 
Name " Corinthian " added to 

title, 132. 
One-design class of knockabouts 

established by, 296. 
Prize given by, 249, 256, 260-266. 
Promotion of scientific yachting 
by, 132-133. 
Senneville, 264. 

Shadow, 148, 150-152, 162, 203. 
Shamrock, American wooden centre- 
board cutter, 226. 
Shamrock I, 301, 304. 

Arrival at New York, 309. 
Races for America Cup, 309-31 1. 
Shavirock II, description of, 312. 

Races for Cup, 315. 
Shamrock III, 230, 3 1 8-3 1 9. 
Sharpies, 272. 
Shearwood, F. P., 259, 265. 

Characteristics of boats designed 
by, 275-276. 
Sherlock, " Dicky," 233. 
Shona, 204. 

^ihh 30. 3i» ZZ- 
Silvie, 21, 73, 82, 89, 1 10. 
Siren, 31, 32, 34, 
Sisson, Dr., 1 5 1. 
Skipjacks, 272. 
Sloane, Captain " Tom," 207. 
Smedley, " Hen," builder, 78. 
Smith, Archibald Cary, 128, 133, 212, 
215, 231, 281, 285, 357. 
Designing by, of — 

Banshee, 202. 

Cinderella, 200. 

Fortuna, 159. 

Gorilla, 203, 206. 

Hesper, 174. 

Intrepid, 132. 

Katrina, 204. 

Mischief, 135. 

Priscilla^ 169, 



378 



Index 



Smith, Archibald CQxy\_continued'\ — 
Designing by, of — 

Prospero, 132. 

Tekla, 357. 

Valkyr, 143. 

Vindex, 1 28-129. 
Sketch of career of, 138-139. 
Steam-yacht designing by, 348, 

357- 
Smith, Henry N., 342. 

Smith, James D., 137. 

Smith, James E., modeller and 

builder, 79, 89. 

Smith & Dimon, builders, 340. 

Solent, small boat sailing on the, 

255. 
South Boston Yacht Club, 81. 
Southern Yacht Club, 37. 
Sport, 35. 

Spray, 28, 30* 3i> 32, 34' 
Spruce HI, 255. 
Spruce IV, 258, 323. 
Steam yachts, advent of, in America, 

339-341- 
Development of, 341-343. 
Herreshoffs engage in building, 

343-344- 
Importation of, from England, 

346-347. 
Use of, for ferrying purposes, 

349-353. 
Stearns, W. B., 296. 
Stebbins, C. H., 168, 180. 
Steers, George, 14-22, 35, 39, 51, 

73, 80, 212, 213, 220. 
America built by, 45-46. 
Considered as a designer, 45-46. 
Steers, Henry, 51, 89, 342, 
Steers, James R., 51. 
Steers family, the, 14-15. 
Stella, British cutter, 61, 64. 
Stephens, W. P., 257. 
Stephenson, Robert, matches Tita- 

nia against America, 59. 



Stevens, Edwin A., 10, 19, 39, 42, 

52, 89. 
Commodore of New York Yacht 

Qub, 36. 
Stevens, James, 10, 
Stevens, Colonel John, 8-10. 
Stevens, John C, lo-ii, 14, 15, 17, 

19, 23, 27, 28, 29, 39. 
Connection with America^ 42, 

53-66. 
Stevens, Robert L., 10, 19, 22, 27. 
Stevens Battery, the, 10. 
Stevens family, development of 

steam navigation by, 10, 

339- 
Stewart, W. A. W., 127. 
Stewart & Binney, designers, 228, 

^ZZ, 289. 
Stillman, James, 134, 156, 313. 
Stranger, 201. 
Stuyvesant, Rutherford, 99. 
Sutton, Sir Richard, 180, 246, 299. 
Sverige, America beats, 69. 
Sweet, Charles, 199-200. 
Sycamore, Captain, 243, 315. 
Sylph, 12. 
Syndicate formed for building — 

Am erica J 42-43. 

Colonia, 228. 

Constitution, 313. 

Pilgri??i, 228. 

Puritan, 169, 1 72-176. 

Reliance, 316. 

Vigilant, 228-229. 

Taggard, Henry, 289-290. 
Tams, J. F., 168, 180. 
Tarolinta, 100. 
Tekla, auxiliary yacht, 357. 
Terry, Captain Norman, 160. 
Thetis, 201. 

Thistle, 190-191, 194, 214, 215. fi^*' 
Thorneycroft & Co., builders, 306. 
Tidal Wave, 98, loo-ioi. 



Index 



379 



Titania, American cutter, 204, 214- 
215, 226. 

Titania^ British schooner, 61, 62, 
64, 66. 

Tobin bronze, use of, in yacht con- 
struction, 297. 
Vigilant first employs, 229. 

Tomahawk, 203, 209. 

Tooker, William, 73. 

Torpedo-boats, Herreshoffs', 217, 343. 

Trial races, 137, 179, 184, 231, 239, 
308, 318. 

Trilby, 256. 

Trouble, ii. 

Trust Me, 256, 257. 

Turner, Christopher, builder, 3. 

Tweed, Charles H., 199, 203, 206. 

Una^ American sloop, 15, 18, 39, 82. 
Una^ Marquis of Conyngham's six- 
teen-footer, 75. 
" Una " class of sailboats, 75. 
Undine, 75. 
Union silk, use of, in sails, 205, 287. 

Valiant, 142. 

Valkyr, 143-144, 159, 186. 
Valkyrie I, 225. 
Valkyrie II, 228, 284. 

Description of, 233-234. 

Navahoe races against, 224. 

Races for America Cup, 234-236. 

Sunk by Satanita, 237. 
Valkyrie III, description of, 238. 

Races for America Cup, 240-244. 
Van Buskirk family, the, 77. 
Vanderbilt, Cornelius, 228, 296, 316, 

340. 
Vanderbilt, F. W., 228. 

Conqueror episode, 347. 
Vanderbilt, W. K., 228, 239. 
Vanderbilt, W. K , Jr., 296. 
Van Deusen, J. B., 78, 88, 89, 93, 
342. 



Varuna, steam yacht, 348. 
Vendetta, 243. 
Ventura, 203, 208. 
Verena, 203. 
Verplanck, Samuel, 27. 
Vesta, 85, 88, 283. 

Ocean race of, 89-93. 
Victoria, 75. 
Victoria and Albert, 65. 
Vigilant, 64, 229. 

Defence of America Cup by, 
234-236. 

Description, 232. 

Races against Britannia, 237, 
238. 

Trial races against Defender, 
239-240. 

Visit to England, 237-238. 
Vindex, 129-130, 139, 142, 284. 
Virginia, 296. 
Vision, 129, 136. 
Vixen, 136, 159. 
Volante, 61, 64, 65, 1 3 1. 
Volunteer, 201, 228. 

Defence of America Cup by, 194. 

Description, 192-193, 214. 

Waller, John R,, 137. 
Walters, Henry, 313, 316. 
Wanderer, 100. 
Ward, Samuel Curwen, 7. 
Warren, George H., 156. 
Wasp^ 224, 243, 287. 
Waterbury, James M., 28. 
Watson, George L., designing of — 

Madge, 145. 

Marjorie, 163. 

Shamrock II, 311. 

Thistle, 190, 214. 

Valkyrie I, 225. 

Valkyrie II, 228. 

Valkyrie III, 238. 
Steam-yacht designing by, 346, 
348. 



38o 



Index 



Wave, schooner, il. 

Wave, sloop, 148, 149, 150, 152, 153. 

Wave, steam yacht, 341-342. 

Webb, J. Beavor, 165. 

Webb & Allen, builders, 12. 

Weetamoe, 297. 

Weld, William F., 172, 174. 

Wenonah, 156, 159, 167, 285. 

Wetmore, C W., 205. 

Wetmore & Holbrook, builders, 12. 

White Bear Lake, scow type on, 

275- 
Whitecap, 136. 
Whitehall boats, 247-248. 
Whitney, H. P., 296. 
Whitney, WilHam C, 245. 
Widener, P. A. B., 316. 
Widgeon, 82. 

Wilkes, Hamilton, 26, 28, 29, 43. 
Wilson, R. H,, sail-maker, 51, 157. 
Winchester, W. P., 28. 
Winde & Qinkard, builders, 35. 
Wintringham, H. C, designer, 348. 



Wolverton, Lord, 238. 

Wood, use of, in yacht construction, 

283-287. 
Wringe, Captain, 315. 
Wyvertiy 6 1, 65. 

Xara, 203. 

Yacht, definition of, i. 

First American, 1-8. 
"Yacht Building," Marett's, 127. 
Yachting, origin of, in New York, 8. 
Yachting journals, 324, 335. 
Yachting literature, 328. 
Yachting reporters, 157-158, 160. 
Yacht Racing Association, 141. 
Yankee, 296. 
Yolande, 134. 

Yorktown, cause of the Valkyrie- 
Defender foul, 242. 
Yvonne, 207. 

Zinga, 83. 



THE AMERICAN SPORTSMAN'S LIBRARY 

Edited by CASPAR WHITNEY 

Crown 8vo Cloth Each $2.00 net 



THE DEER FAMILY 

By THEODORE ROOSEVELT, T. S. VAN DYKE, D. G ELLIOTT, and A. J. 
STONE. With many illustrations by Carl Rungius, and map by Dr. C. Hart 
Merriam. 

UPLAND GAME BIRDS 

By EDWYN SANDYS and T. S. VAN DYKE. With many illustrations by 
L. A. FuERTES, A. B. Frost, J. O. Nugent, and C. L. Bull. 

SALMON AND TROUT 

By DEAN SAGE, W. C. HARRIS, and C. H. TOWNSEND. With many illus- 
trations by A. B. Frost and others. 

THE WATER-FOWL FAMILY 

By LEONARD C. SANFORD, L. B. BISHOP, and T. S. VAN DYKE. With 
many illustrations by L. A. Fuertes, A. B. Frost, and C. L. Bull. 

BASS, PIKE, PERCH, AND PICKEREL 

By JAMES A. HENSHALL, M.D. With many illustrations by Martin Justice 
and others. 

THE BIG GAME FISHES OF THE UNITED STATES 

By CHARLES F. HOLDER. With many illustrations in color by Charles F. W. 
MiELATZ and others. 

MUSK-OX, BISON, SHEEP, AND GOAT 

By CASPAR WHITNEY, GEORGE BIRD GRINNELL, and OWEN WISTER. 

With many illustrations by Carl Rungius and others. 

In preparation for early issm 
GUNS, AMMUNITION, AND TACKLE 

By A. W. MONEY, W. E. CARLIN, A. L. A. HIMMELWRIGHT, and J. HAR- 
RINGTON KEENE. 

THE BEAR FAMILY 

By DR. C. HART MERRIAM. With illustrations by Carl Rungius and others. 

COUGAR, WILD CAT, WOLF, AND FOX 



THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 

66 Fifth Avenue, New York 



THE AMERICAN SPORTSMAN'S 

LIBRARY 

Edited by CASPAR WHITNEY 

Crown 8yo Cloth $2.00 net 



SECOND SERIES 



THE SPORTING DOG 

By JOSEPH A. GRAHAM. With many illustrations from photographs. 

AMERICAN YACHTING 

By W. P. STEPHENS. With many illu.strations by E. A. Schell and Carlton T. 

Chapman. 

IN PREPARATION 

The American Race Horse, the Running Horse 
The Trotting and Pacing Horse 
Rowing and Track Athletics 
Lawn Tennis and Lacrosse 
Skating, Hockey, and Kite Sailing 
Photography for the Sportsman Naturalist 
Baseball and Football 
Riding and Driving 



The Macmillan Company 

66 Fifth Avenue - - - New York 



1 



